Classic Poem

BY Maria F ALCONAR .

'T WAS when with gentle grace the smiling spring
Had strew'd the plain with variegated flowers,
The tenants of the grove began to sing,
And Nature boasted all her rural powers.

Far from the music of the vernal grove,
Where pleasure reigns in every breast elate,
Far from the scenes of harmony and love,
A captive bulfinch thus bemoan'd his fate.

Oft have I sat upon a blooming spray,
And join'd the woodlark in an equal song;
In freedom oft have past my hours away,
Nor thought the longest summer's day too long.

Oft, from the torrent of the loud cascade,
I've sipt the water of the crystal stream;
Oft, in the cool refreshing verdant shade,
I've sought a shelter from the noontide beam.

Ah me! and when the goddess of the morn,
With early hand unbarr'd the gates of light,
Upon the bosom of the Zephyrs borne,
To meet my love I took my earnest flight.

The groves and shades are witness to the hours,
That I have spent unknown to care and strife; —
I had been happy if the pitying powers
Had spar'd my liberty and ta'en my life!