TO THE MOCKING-BIRD.

Arch imitator! ’mid thy varied tone,

That revels so acquisitively sweet,

Rivalling e’en Nature’s self, when doth thine own

Wild native air my rapt delusion greet?

Hast thou a voice to echo every note

Of liquid melody that erst hath dwelt

’Mid the greenwood, or where soft zephyrs float:

Yet of thine own hath not, in ecstacy to melt?