——:o:——

BALLAD STANZAS

(The Woodpecker.)

I knew by the smoke that so gracefully curl’d

Above the green elms, that a cottage was near,

And I said, “If there’s peace to be found in the world,

A heart that was humble might hope for it here!”

It was noon, and on flowers that languish’d around

In silence repos’d the voluptuous bee;

Every leaf was at rest, and I heard not a sound