Here droops the banner on the tower,

On the hall-hearths the festal fires,

The peacock in his laurel bower, 15

The parrot in his gilded wires.

III.

Roof-haunting martins warm their eggs:

In these, in those the life is stay’d.

The mantles from the golden pegs

Droop sleepily: no sound is made,— 20

Not even of a gnat that sings.