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Home  »  A Library of American Literature  »  The Baltimore Bird

Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889

The Baltimore Bird

By Alexander Wilson (1766–1813)

[Born in Paisley, Scotland, 1766. Died in Philadelphia, Penn., 1813. The Poems and Literary Prose of Alexander Wilson. 1876.]

HIGH on yon poplar, clad in glossiest green,

The orange, black-capped Baltimore is seen;

The broad-extended boughs still please him best,

Beneath their bending skirts he hangs his nest;

There his sweet mate, secure from every harm,

Broods o’er her spotted store, and wraps them warm,—

Lists to the noon-tide hum of busy bees,

Her partner’s mellow song, the brook, the breeze;

These day by day the lonely hours deceive,

From dewy morn to slow-descending eve.

Two weeks elapsed, behold a helpless crew

Claim all her care, and her affection too;

On wings of love the assiduous nurses fly,—

Flowers, leaves, and boughs, abundant food supply;

Glad chants their guardian, as abroad he goes,

And waving breezes rock them to repose.