Signs of trembling thou’lt discover
Here and there, despite the boasting;
I commend this little poem
To thy well-proved gentleness!
Ah! perchance it is the last free
Forest-song of the Romantic;
In the daytime’s wild confusion
Will it sadly die away.
Other times and other birds too!
Other birds and other music!
What a crackling, like the geese’s
Who preserved the Capitol!
What a twitt’ring! ’Tis the sparrows,.
While their claws hold farthing rushlights;
Yet they’re strutting like Jove’s eagle
With the mighty thunderbolt!
What a cooing! Turtledoves ’tis;
Sick of love, they now are hating,
And henceforward, ’stead of Venus,
Draw the chariot of Bellona!
What a humming, world-convulsing!
’Tis in fact the big cock-chafers
Of the springtime of the people,
Smitten with a sudden frenzy!
Other times and other birds too!
Other birds and other music!
They perchance could give me pleasure
Had I only other ears!