A hundred voices mingle with thy clamor; Bird, beast, and reptile take part in thy drama; Out-speak they all in turn without a stammer,-- Brisk Polyglot! Voices of Killdeer, Plover, Duck, and Dotterel; Notes bubbling, hissing, mellow, sharp, and guttural; Of Cat-Bird, Cat, or Cart-Wheel, thou canst utter all, And all-untaught.
The Raven's croak, the chirping of the Sparrow, The scream of Jays, the creaking of Wheelbarrow, And hoot of Owls,--all join the soul to harrow, And grate the ear. We listen to thy quaint soliloquizing, As if all creatures thou wert catechizing, Tuning their voices, and their notes revising, From far and near.
Sweet bird! that surely lovest the noise of folly; Most musical, but never melancholy; Disturber of the hour that should be holy, With sound prodigious! Fie on thee, O thou feathered Paganini! To use thy little pipes to squawk and whinny, And emulate the hinge and spinning-jenny, Making night hideous!
Provoking melodist! why canst thou breathe us No thrilling harmony, no charming pathos, No cheerful song of love without its bathos? The Furies take thee,-- Blast thy obstreperous mirth, thy foolish chatter,-- Gag thee, exhaust thy breath, and stop thy clatter, And change thee to a beast, thou senseless prater!-- Nought else can check thee!
A lengthened pause ensues:--but hark again! From the new woodland, stealing o'er the plain, Comes forth a sweeter and a holier strain!-- Listening delighted, The gales breathe softly, as they bear along The warbled treasure,--the delicious throng Of notes that swell accordant in the song, As love is plighted.
The Echoes, joyful from their vocal cell, Leap with the wingèd sounds o'er hill and dell, With kindling fervor, as the chimes they tell To wakeful Even:-- They melt upon the ear; they float away; They rise, they sink, they hasten, they delay, And hold the listener with bewitching sway, Like sounds from heaven!
The gentlemen of our party go one day to visit the Jesuit College in Havana, yclept "Universidad de Belen." The ladies, weary of dry goods, manifest some disposition to accompany them. This is at once frowned down by the unfairer sex, and Can Grande, appealed to by the other side, shakes his shoulders, and replies, "No, you are only miserable women, and cannot be admitted into any Jesuit establishment whatever." And so the male deputation departs with elation, and returns with airs of superior opportunity, and is more insufferable than ever at dinner, and thereafter.