SMALL BIRDS.

The NIGHTINGALE.

THY plaintive notes, sweet Philomel,
All other melodies excel!

Deep in the grove retir'd;

Thou seem'st thyself and song to hide, Nor dost thou boast or plume with pride, Nor wish to be admir'd.

So, if endu'd with pow'r and grace,
And with that pow'r my will keep pace,
To act a gen'rous part!

Hence, paltry ostentatious show!
Nor let my lib'ral action know

A witness, but my heart

D

The LARK.

FROM his humble grassy bed,
See the warbling lark arise!

By his grateful wishes led,

Through those regions of the skies,

Songs of thanks and praise he pours,
Harmonizing airy space,

Sings, and mounts, and higher soars,
T'wards the throne of heav'nly grace.

Small his gifts compar'd to mine,

Poor my thanks with his compar❜d:

I've a soul almost divine:

Angels blessings with me shar'd.

Wake, my soul! to praise aspire,
Reason, every sense accord,

Join in pure seraphic fire,

Love, and thanks, and praise the Lord!

ODE to the THRUSH.

SWEET warbler! to whose artless song
Soft music's native powers belong,
Here fix thy haunt, and o'er these plains
Still pour thy wild untutor❜d strains!
Still hail the morn with sprightly lay,
And sweetly hymn the parting day :
But sprightlier still, and sweeter pour
Thy songs o'er Flavia's fav'rite bow'r;
There softly breathe the vary'd sound,
And chaunt thy loves, or woes, around.

So may'st thou live, securely blest,
And no rude storms disturb thy nest,
No birdlime twig, or gin annoy,
Or cruel gun, thy brood destroy:
No want of shelter may'st thou know,
Which Ripton's lofty shades bestow;
No dearth of winter berries fear,

For haws and hips blush half the year.

London Magazine

The DEATH of the HAWK, and the COUNCIL of BIRDS,

Written by Mr. Upton.

'TWAS a Midsummer morn, when the birds of the air

Call'd a council of state,-weighty things to declare;

Their chamber a wood, leafy, secret and wide, And they met to debate on the Hawk that had died.

Then there came the Linnet, the Goldfinch, and Lark,

With the Nightingale, just from her song in the dark;

The Chaffinch, and birds from the mountain and glen,

The Sparrow and Thrush, with the Robin and Wren.

Their chamber a wood leafy secret and wide. And they met to debate on the Hawk that had died.

London. Published by W.Darton Jun! 58. Holborn Hill July 132816.