Greeting!
Oh, sweet is the whitethroat’s lay,
As the banners of dawn unfold!
The lovable, quarrelsome wrens all day
Peep and prattle and scold:
Skulks a blue jay hiding his grain;
Blinks an owl with the crows in train—
Courtship merry and combat vain
The eyes of the wise behold.
* * * * * *
And Nature spreads wide her book,
In a temple fair and free,—
To all who may listen she cries, “Come, look!
Come and learn at my knee.
Watch the change of the finch’s vest,
Note how the highhole carves his nest,—
Come with light foot and loving breast,
And bury your ills with me!”
—Dora Read Goodale.