The Green Linnet

Beneath these fruit-tree boughs that shed
Their snow-white blossoms ______ my head,
With brightest sunshine round me spread
Of spring's unclouded weather,
In this sequestered nook how sweet
To ______ upon my orchard-seat!
And birds and flowers once more ______ greet,
My last year's friends together.

One have I marked, the happiest guest
In all this covert of the blest:
Hail to Thee, far above the rest
In joy ______ voice and pinion!
Thou, Linnet! in thy green array,
______ Spirit here to-day,
Dost lead the revels of the May;
And this is thy dominion.

While birds, and butterflies, ______ flowers,
Make all one band of paramours,
Thou, ranging ______ and down the bowers,
Art sole in thy employment:
______ Life, a Presence like the Air,
Scattering thy gladness ______ care,
Too blest with any one to pair;
Thyself ______ own enjoyment.

Amid yon tuft of hazel trees,
That ______ to the gusty breeze,
Behold him perched in ecstasies,
______ seeming still to hover;
There! where the flutter of ______ wings
Upon his back and body flings
Shadows and ______ glimmerings,
That cover him all over.

My dazzled sight ______ oft deceives,
A brother of the dancing leaves;
Then flits, and from the cottage-eaves
Pours forth his song in gushes;
As if by that exulting strain
He mocked and ______ with disdain
The voiceless Form he chose to feign,
______ fluttering in the bushes.