Fugitive Poetry. 1600–1878/The Migration of Birds

The Migration of Birds.

Where the Northern Ocean in vast whirls,Boils round the naked melancholy islesOf farthest Thule, and the Atlantic surgePours in among the stormy Hebrides;Who can recount what transmigrations thereAre annual made? what nations come and go?And how the living clouds on clouds arise?Infinite wings! till all the plume-dark air,And rude resounding shore are one wild cry.