But while he, perking, there did prie
About the arch of either eye,
The lid began to let out day,
At which poor Robin flew away;
And seeing her not dead, but all disleav'd,
He chirpt for joy, to see himself disceav'd."
In the earlier editions of Gray's Elegy, before the Epitaph, the following exquisite lines were inserted:
"There scatter'd oft, the earliest of the year,
By hands unseen, are showers of violets found:
The Redbreast loves to build and warble there,