15 SEPTEMBER 1877, Page 14

P OETRy.

TWO SONNETS, I.—TO A FLEDGLING ROBIN.

ROBIN, thou art too young as yet to wear The badge of robinhood in full confeet- The burning breastplate on the conscious breast— And hast not learnt to build, to sing, or care ; Only to live, filled with the liberal air, Which, if it gently breathed from south or west, Found and o'erflowed thee in thy sheltered nest, And dwells as marrow in thy feathers fair.

I, weary thinker 'neath the aspen trees,

See thee win past me, lightsome as a bubble,—

No labouring bark, with purblind thought to steer it But a plumed will that works with sovereign ease ; Approach, glad life, as free of doubt as trouble,— I feel as if in presence of a spirit