Who wont in forest shades to dine and sup,--
So came this chief right frankly, and made good
His haunch against his axe, and thus spoke up,
Doffing his cap, which was an acorn's cup:--


XLVII.

"We be small foresters and gay, who tend
On trees, and all their furniture of green,
Training the young boughs airily to bend,
And show blue snatches of the sky between;--
Or knit more close intricacies, to screen
Birds' crafty dwellings, as may hide them best,
But most the timid blackbird's--she that, seen,
Will bear black poisonous berries to her nest,
Lest man should cage the darlings of her breast."


XLVIII.

"We bend each tree in proper attitude,
And founting willows train in silvery falls;
We frame all shady roofs and arches rude,
And verdant aisles leading to Dryads' halls,
Or deep recesses where the Echo calls;--
We shape all plumy trees against the sky,
And carve tall elms' Corinthian capitals,--
When sometimes, as our tiny hatchets ply,
Men say, the tapping woodpecker is nigh."