Makes their dark branches gleam a lighter hue Through the late twilight: and though now the Bat Wheels silent by, and not a Swallow twitters, Yet still the solitary humble Bee Sings in the bean-flower! Henceforth I shall know * FLEW CREEKING.] Some months after I had written this line, it gave me pleasure to observe that Bartram had observed the same circumstance of the Savanna Crane. "When these Birds move their wings in flight, their strokes are slow, moderate and regular; and even when at a considerable distance or For thee, my gentle-hearted Charles, to whom high above us, we plainly hear the quill-feathers; their shafts and webs upon one another creek as the joints or working of a vessel in a tempestuous sea." TO A FRIEND WHO HAD DECLARED HIS INTENTION OF WRITING NO MORE POETRY. DEAR Charles! whilst yet thou wert a babe I ween And promised for thee, that thou shouldst renounce Steadfast and rooted in the heavenly Muse, Yes-thou wert plunged, but with forgetful hand To weave unwithering flowers! But take thou heed: For thou art vulnerable, wild-eyed Boy, Such as may stop my speed. Is thy Burns dead? And shall he die unwept, and sink to Earth "Without the meed of one melodious tear? Thy Burns, and Nature's own beloved Bard, Who to the " Illustrious+ of his native Land "So properly did look for Patronage." Ghost of Mæcenas! hide thy blushing face! They snatched him from the Sickle and the PloughTo gauge Ale-Firkins. Oh! for shame return! On a bleak Rock, midway the Aonian mount, * Vide Pind. Olymp. ii. 1. 156. + Verbatim from Burns's dedication of his Poem to the Nobility and Gentry of the Caledonian Hunt. |