THE WOOD PEWEE.
Reading edition
The listening Dryads hushed the woods; The boughs were thick, and thin and few The golden ribbons fluttering through; Their sun-embroidered leafy hoods The lindens lifted to the blue; Only a little forest-brook The farthest hem of silence shook; When in the hollow shades I heard— Was it a spirit or a bird? Or, strayed from Eden, desolate, Some Peri calling to her mate, Whom nevermore her mate would cheer? “Pe-ri! Pe-ri! Peer!”
To trace it in its green retreat I sought among the boughs in vain; And followed still the wandering strain So melancholy and so sweet, The dim-eyed violets yearned with pain.
Long drawn and clear its closes were— As if the hand of Music through The sombre robe of Silence drew A thread of golden gossamer; So pure a flute the fairy blue. Like beggared princes of the wood, In silver rags the birches stood; The hemlocks, lordly counselors, Were dumb; the sturdy servitors, In beechen jackets patched and gray, Seemed waiting spellbound all the day That low, entrancing note to hear— “Pe-wee! Pe-wee! Peer!”
“Dear bird,” I said, “what is thy name?” And thrice the mournful answer came, So faint and far, and yet so near, “Pe-wee! Pe-wee! Peer!” —J. T. Trowbridge.
wood pewee. From col. Chi. Acad. Sciences. Copyrighted by Nature Study Pub. Co., 1897, Chicago.
