On shrubs and vines, with ripening berries hung,
Folded their glittering wings, and amorously sung.
The water-rat and darting otter swam
Amid the reedy flags that fringed the shore;
And the brown beaver to his rounded dam,
With patient toil, the tooth-hewn sappling bore:
The lonely heron, surfeited with gore.
Smoothed on the pebbly beech his plumage dank:
Earth, sky and wave an air of wildness wore,
And nimbly down the green and sloping bank