Not the whole warbling grove in concert heard When sunshine follows shower, the breast can thrill Like the first summons, Cuckoo! of thy bill, With its twin notes inseparably paired.[483] The captive 'mid damp vaults unsunned, unaired, 5 Measuring the periods of his lonely doom, That cry can reach; and to the sick man's room Sends gladness, by no languid smile declared. The lordly eagle-race through hostile search May perish; time may come when never more 10 The wilderness shall hear the lion roar; But, long as cock shall crow from household perch To rouse the dawn, soft gales shall speed thy wing, And thy erratic voice[484] be faithful to the Spring! FOOTNOTES: [483] Compare _To the Cuckoo_--1802 (vol. ii. p. 290)-- Thy twofold shout I hear. Also Robert Browning's _A Lovers' Quarrel_, stanza 18-- ... that minor third There is none but the cuckoo knows.--ED. [484] Compare (vol. ii. p. 289)-- O Cuckoo! shall I call thee Bird, Or but a wandering Voice?--ED. THE INFANT M---- M---- Composed 1827.--Published 1827 [The infant was Mary Monkhouse,[485] the only daughter of my friend and cousin, Thomas Monkhouse.--I. F.] One of the "Miscellaneous Sonnets."--ED. Unquiet Childhood here by special grace Forgets her nature, opening like a flower That neither feeds nor wastes its vital power In painful struggles. Months each other chase, And nought untunes that Infant's voice; no trace[486] 5 Of fretful temper sullies her pure cheek;[487] Prompt, lively, self-sufficing, yet so meek That one enrapt with gazing on her face (Which even the placid innocence of death Could scarcely make more placid, heaven more bright) Might learn to picture, for the eye of faith, 11 The Virgin, as she shone with kindred light; A nursling couched upon her mother's knee, Beneath some shady palm of Galilee. FOOTNOTES: [485] Afterwards Mrs. Henry Dew of Whitney Rectory, Herefordshire.--ED. [486] 1837. ... a trace 1827. [487] 1837. ... sullies not her cheek; 1827. TO ROTHA Q---- Composed 1827.--Published 1827 [Rotha, the daughter of my son-in-law, Mr. Quillinan.--I. F.]