William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Georgian Verse. 1909.
Ode: To the CuckooMichael Bruce (17461767)
H
Attendant on the Spring!
Now heav’n repairs thy rural seat,
And woods thy welcome sing.
Thy certain voice we hear:
Hast thou a star to guide thy path,
Or mark the rolling year?
I hail the time of flow’rs,
When heav’n is fill’d with music sweet
Of birds among the bow’rs.
To pull the flow’rs so gay,
Starts, thy curious voice to hear,
And imitates thy lay.
Thou fly’st thy vocal vale,
An annual guest, in other lands,
Another Spring to hail.
Thy sky is ever clear;
Thou hast no sorrow in thy song,
No winter in thy year!
Dark scowling skies I see
Fast gathering round, and fraught with woe
And wintry years to me.
We’d make, with social wing,
Our annual visit o’er the globe,
Companions of the Spring.