Two amorous Sparrows chose this place;
The softest of the feather'd race:
The MARS and VENUS of the grove;
Less fam'd for singing than for love.
The songsters warbled sweet; while they
As sweetly bill'd their time away.
So closely seated were the two,
Together you wou'd think they grew:
The twig was tender where they sate,
And bent beneath their little weight;
But scarcely in their lives was known
To bear the one, when one was flown.
When hunger call'd, they left the wood,
Together sought the field for food;
When thirsty, in the shallow rills
Together dip'd their little bills.
When PHOEBUS sitting in the west,
And thick'ning shades invite to rest,
They homeward bent their mutual flight:
Thus pass'd their day, thus pass'd their night.
The castle, where these lovers lay;
Was in a hollow oak, they say:
There, side by side, all night they kept;
Together walk'd, together slept:
And mixing amorous disport,
They made their winter-evening short.
Tho' free, 'twas left to other's mind,
To chuse a mate from all their kind,
She only lov'd the loving he;
He only lov'd the lovely she.