THE BADGER PUBLIC LIBRARY - Wordsworth Poetry

A Wren's Nest

William Wordsworth

Amomg the dwellings framed by birds
    In field or forest with nice care,
Is none that with the little Wren's
    In snugness may compare.

No door the tenement requires,
    And seldom needs a laboured roof;
Yet is it to the fiercest sun
    Impervious, and storm-proof.

So warm, so beautiful withal,
    In perfect fitness for its aim,
That to the Kind by special grace
    Their instinct surely came.

And when for their abodes they seek
    An opportune recess,
The hermit has no finer eye
    For shadowy quietness.

These find, 'mid ivied abbey-walls,
    A canopy in some still nook;
Others are pent-housed by a brae
    That overhangs a brook.

There to the brooding bird her mate
    Warbles by fits his low clear song;
And by the busy streamlet both
    Are sung to all day long.

Or in sequestered lanes they build,
    Where, till the flitting bird's return,
Her eggs within the nest repose,
    Like relics in an urn.

But still, where general choice is good,
    There is a better and a best;
And, among fairest objects, some
    Are fairer than the rest;

This, one of those small builders proved
    In a green covert, where, from out
The forehead of a pollard oak,
    The leafy antlers sprout;

For She who planned the mossy lodge,
    Mistrusting her evasive skill,
Had to a Primrose looked for aid
    Her wishes to fulfill.

High on the trunk's projecting brow,
    And fixed an infant's span above
The budding flowers, peeped forth the nest
    The prettiest of the grove!

The treasure proudly did I show
    To some whose minds without disdain
Can turn to little things; but once
    Looked up for it in vain:

'Tis gone---a ruthless spoiler's prey,
    Who heeds not beauty, love, or song,
'Tis gone! (so seemed it) and we grieved
    Indignant at the wrong.

Just three days after, passing by
    In clearer light the moss-built cell
I saw, espied its shaded mouth;
    And felt that all was well.

The Primrose for a veil had spread
    The largest of her upright leaves;
And thus, for purposes benign,
    A simple flower deceives.

Concealed from friends who might disturb
    Thy quiet with no ill intent,
Secure from evil eyes and hands
    On barbarous plunder bent,

Rest, Mother-bird! and when thy young
    Take flight, and thou art free to roam,
When withered is the guardian Flower,
    And empty thy late home,

Think how ye prospered, thou and thine,
    Amid the unviolated grove
Housed near the growing Primrose-tuft
    In foresight, or in love.