Each thou hast wrought as a lyric note Pure with one mood of sky and trees And flowers, and tiny lives that float Or dart or poise in world of these. The painter's hand, the thrush's throat-- Which masters best these melodies? Gusty rain through the tree-tops blown And a bird that scuds where the grey gusts hiss-- Sapphire wings and a golden crown Flung skyward in unconscious bliss-- No rare enchanted bird has known As thou hast known the savour of this! And winning it, thou hast cast aside Thy native bonds of mortal birth, Flinging the spirit-pinions wide Above this world of weary worth, To float and poise and skyward ride With those whose realm is not the earth-- The peacock in his proud repose-- Wild geese that rush across the moon-- The little sleepy owl that knows The wind-among-the-tree-tops tune-- The kingfisher that darts and glows Over the reeds of the lagoon-- The flower-lured humming-bird that weaves Spirals more delicate than they-- Sanderlings that on moonlit eves Over the wave-crest swoop and play-- The crane that shores of sunset leaves For sunset skies of far away. [Illustration: HIROSHIGE: THE SEVEN RI FERRY, KUWANA, AT THE MOUTH OF THE KISO RIVER--SUNSET. One of the Series "The Fifty-three Post Stations of the Tokaido Road." Size 9 × 14. Signed _Hiroshige ga_. _Plate 53._] Hiroshige was born in 1796, just as the great period of figure-designing was drawing to its close. As a youth he attempted to gain entrance to the studio of Toyokuni; but the fortunate fact that there was no room for him forced him to enter the studio of the less popular but more subtly gifted Toyohiro. Here he studied landscape, a branch in which he was destined far to outstrip his master. That delicate genius which was Toyohiro's cannot but have produced its effect upon the pupil; and it pleases one to fancy that it is some echo of Toyohiro's inarticulate refinement of feeling that gains at last full expression in some of Hiroshige's most beautiful landscapes. In 1828 Toyohiro died; and Hiroshige became independent. His earliest works probably antedate this time a little; they consist of a few figures of women and actors, and two very fine horizontal landscape series. These were the "Toto Meisho," or earliest series of Yedo views, distinguished by curious long red clouds in each plate; and the "Honcho Meisho," a group of views of the main island of Japan. Particularly the first of these sets contains work of great beauty.