Page:Poems Allen.djvu/58

Forgetting all its dread of human foes,
    Desiring only rest,
It folded its weak wings, and nestled close
    And gladly to my breast.

Wherefore, I said, this little flickering life,
   Which now all panting lies,
Shall yet forget its peril and its strife,
    And soar in sunny skies.

To-morrow, gaining England's shore again,
    Its wings shall find their rest;
And soon, among the leaves of some green lane,
    Brood o'er a summer nest.

And when, amid my future wanderings,
    My far and devious quest,
I hear a warbling bird, whose carol rings
    More sweetly than the rest,—

Then I shall say, with heart awake and warm,
    And sudden sympathy,
"It is the bird I sheltered in the storm,
    The life I saved at sea!"