The thankful oriole used to pour,
Swing’st empty while the north winds chase
Their snowy swarms from Labrador.
But, loyal to the happy past,
I love thee still for what thou wast.”
Besides the bobolink and the oriole, the blackbird is often made to do charming duty in Lowell’s verse. Every student of the birds has often seen the picture described by the line,—
“Alders the creaking red-wings sink on;”
or heard
“... the blackbirds clatt’rin’ in tall trees
An’ settlin’ things in windy Congresses,—