87
THE BIRD
THAT GUIDES HIM TO THE BOWER OF MORVYTH.
DESCRIPTION OF HER BOWER.
He declares in his usual style that, if the month of May should return once more, he would demand from Morvyth a fulfilment of her pledges to meet him in the green woods, and that he would trace out her arbour with the same speed and sagacity that the deer is tracked by hound and huntsman. He gives the following fanciful description of his companion in the pursuit.
By the welkin’s side
Floats my airy guide,
With unrivall’d skill
And intonations sweet,
Indicating still
Whither Essyllt’s feet
Through the forest glade
From my sight have stray’d,
And with comic lay
Calls on her to stay!
But for grief I could have smiled
At that warbler’s frolics wild;
And when I wept and felt despair,
And fear’d I ne’er should find the fair,
He carroll’d forth a noble strain,
With silvery voice to soothe my pain;
