Page:The blue poetry book (IA bluepoetry00lang).pdf/32

Yet much as Nature I respect,
I ventured once to break
(As you perhaps may recollect)
Her precept for your sake;

And when your linnet on a day,
Passing his prison door,
Had flutter’d all his strength
And panting away, pressed the floor;

Well knowing him a sacred thing,
Not destined to my tooth,
I only kiss’d his ruffled wing.
And lick’d the feathers smooth.

Let my obedience then excuse
My disobedience now,
Nor some reproof yourself refuse
From your aggrieved Bow-wow;

If killing birds be such a crime,
(Which I can hardly see),
What think you, sir, of killing Time
With verse address’d to me?

Oft I had heard of Lucy Gray:
And, when I crossed the wild,
I chanced to see at break of day
The solitary child.

No mate, no comrade Lucy knew;
She dwelt on a wide moor,
—The sweetest thing that ever grew
Beside a human door!