I
A haw, with branches of bloom;
And a bird on the topmost,
Sitting and swinging,
And merrily singing,--
O'er all the sunshiny meadow
Her glad music flinging.
II
A brook is under the haw,
With pads and white blossoms;
And eddying, curling,
It gives them a twirling,
And half drowns the tender white lilies
With foaming and whirling.
III
But out of the brook there slides
A serpent gold-crested;
Star-bright are his eyes,
But his lips are lies,--
He spoils the nest of the redbreast,
And wounded she flies.
