THE SONG SPARROW’S NEST.

HERE where tumultuous vines
    Shadow the porch at the west,
Leaf with tendril entwines
    Under a song sparrow’s nest.

She in her pendulous nook

    Sways with the warm wind tide,
I with a pen or a book
    Rock as soft at her side.

Comrades with nothing to say,
    Neither of us intrudes,

But through the lingering day
    Each of us sits and broods.

Not upon hate and fear,
    Not upon grief or doubt,
Not upon spite or sneer,

    These we could never hatch out. [Page 86]

She broods on wonderful things:
    Quickening life that belongs
To a heart and a voice and wings,
    But—I’m not so sure of my songs!

Then in the summer night,
    When I awake with a start,
I think of the nest at the height—
    The leafy height of my heart;

I think of the mother love,

    Of the patient wings close furled,
Of the sky that broods above,
    Of the Love that broods on the world. [Page 87]