Poems (Hoffman)/The Meadow Lark

by Martha Lavinia Hoffman

THE MEADOW LARK

A loud melodious burst of sound in cheery, blithesome measure,
A call uprising from the ground of real ecstatic pleasure
 A peal of mild and mellow chimes,
 A roll of wild and breezy rhymes,
A gush of joy's enraptured climes—then all the air is silent.

But once again the singer swells his throat with song o'erflowing,
Then falls another chime of bells where shooting-stars are glowing,
 And once again the air is still
 Save for the voice of laughing rill,
And sunbeams dance from stream and hill across the flowery meadow.

When there preparing for his flight from an adjacent hollow
A meadow-lark screams his delight while answering echoes follow,
 Perches a moment on a stump
 With yellow breast, well-fed and plump,
Then clears the marshy weedy clump with one last scream of rapture.

And speeds away across the fields to join his gay companions
'Till waving grain his form conceals and hides his fluttering pinions,
 While dancing beam
 And circling stream
Like sprites of mirth and laughter
In playful frolic whirl and gleam,
Echo takes up the sportive scream and sends it flying after.