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THE WREN’S NEST.
- I TOOK the wren’s nest;—
- Heaven forgive me!
- Its merry architects so small
- Had scarcely finished their wee hall,
- That, empty still, and neat and fair,
- Hung idly in the summer air.
- The mossy walls, the dainty door,
- Where Love should enter and explore,
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- And Love sit carolling outside,
- And Love within chirp multiplied;—
- I took the wren’s nest;—
- Heaven forgive me!
- How many hours of happy pains
- Through early frosts and April rains,
- How many songs at eve and morn
- O’er springing grass and greening corn,
- Before the pretty house was made!
- One little minute, only one,
- And she’ll fly back, and find it—gone!
- I took the wren’s nest:
- Bird, forgive me!
- Thou and thy mate, sans let, sans fear,
- Ye have before you all the year,
- And every wood holds nooks for you,
- In which to sing and build and woo;
- One piteous cry of birdish pain—
- And ye’ll begin your life again,
- And quite forget the lost, lost home
- In many a busy home to come.—
- But I?—Your wee house keep I must
- Until it crumble into dust.
- I took the wren’s nest:
- God forgive me!
