BIRDS
BIRDS
BIRDS
Chaste are their instincts, faithful is their fire,No foreign beauty tempts to false desire;The snow-white vesture, and the glittering crown,The simple plumage, or the glossy down,Prompt not their love: the patriot bird pursuesHis well-acquainted tints, and kindred hues.Hence, through their tribes no mix’d polluted flame,No monster-breed to mark the groves with shame;But the chaste blackbird, to its partner true,Thinks black alone is beauty’s favourite hue;The nightingale, with mutual passion blest,Sings to its mate, and nightly charms the nest;While the dark owl to court his partner flies,And owns his offspring in their yellow eyes.49
Chaste are their instincts, faithful is their fire,No foreign beauty tempts to false desire;The snow-white vesture, and the glittering crown,The simple plumage, or the glossy down,Prompt not their love: the patriot bird pursuesHis well-acquainted tints, and kindred hues.Hence, through their tribes no mix’d polluted flame,No monster-breed to mark the groves with shame;But the chaste blackbird, to its partner true,Thinks black alone is beauty’s favourite hue;The nightingale, with mutual passion blest,Sings to its mate, and nightly charms the nest;While the dark owl to court his partner flies,And owns his offspring in their yellow eyes.49
Chaste are their instincts, faithful is their fire,No foreign beauty tempts to false desire;The snow-white vesture, and the glittering crown,The simple plumage, or the glossy down,Prompt not their love: the patriot bird pursuesHis well-acquainted tints, and kindred hues.Hence, through their tribes no mix’d polluted flame,No monster-breed to mark the groves with shame;But the chaste blackbird, to its partner true,Thinks black alone is beauty’s favourite hue;The nightingale, with mutual passion blest,Sings to its mate, and nightly charms the nest;While the dark owl to court his partner flies,And owns his offspring in their yellow eyes.49
FOOTNOTES:49From the Latin lines of Addison (Spectator, No. 412), who remarks:—“In birds, we often see the male determined in his courtship by the single grain, or tincture of a feather, and never discovering any charms but in the colour of its species.”
49From the Latin lines of Addison (Spectator, No. 412), who remarks:—“In birds, we often see the male determined in his courtship by the single grain, or tincture of a feather, and never discovering any charms but in the colour of its species.”
49From the Latin lines of Addison (Spectator, No. 412), who remarks:—“In birds, we often see the male determined in his courtship by the single grain, or tincture of a feather, and never discovering any charms but in the colour of its species.”