What is the merle reciting
’Mid the leaves of the rowan-tree,
When the shadows rise from the valley,
And the sun leaps out of the sea?
And what is the skylark trilling,
As he soars in a rosy mist,
When the hill-cap awakes from dreaming,
And by Morning is crowned and kiss’d?
What do the waters murmur,
As they throb to the touch of Day?
And what do the young leaves whisper?
And what do the soft winds say?
The Song of songs they are singing,
Wherein our spirits have part:
Listen, Belovèd! all Nature
Doth echo, ‘Sweet heart! Sweet heart!’
Source: Chambers Edinburgh Journal 6.281 (18 May 1889): 320.
(Available in ProQuest database)
Scottish Women Poets 