Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.
Robert Seymour Bridges 1844–1930Asian Birds
BridgesRI
of heaven, things shoot apace.
The waiting multitude
of fair boughs in the wood,—
How few days have array’d
their beauty in green shade!
it was the yellow bird
Sang in the tree: he flew
a flame against the blue;
Upward he flash’d. Again,
hark! ’t is his heavenly strain,
many, like boats of gold,
From waving branch to branch
their airy bodies launch.
What music is like this,
where each note is a kiss?
their boughs the sun to sift:
Their silken streamers screen
the sky with veils of green,
To make a cage of song,
where feather’d lovers throng.
come bubbling from their throats!
Full and sweet, how they are shed
like round pearls from a thread!
The motions of their flight
are wishes of delight.
the secret of their grace.
Ah, could I this fair time
so fashion into rhyme,
The poem that I sing
would be the voice of spring.