<h2 id="c12">THE BIRD’S COMPLAINT.</h2>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">Great Nature, lend an ear while we,</p>
<p class="t2">The feathered fowls of air,</p>
<p class="t0">From mead and furrow, bush and tree,</p>
<p class="t0">From pool and mountain, shore and sea,</p>
<p class="t0">With one accord pour forth to thee</p>
<p class="t2">Our earnest cry and prayer.</p>
</div>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">From lime and net, from gin and snare,</p>
<p class="t2">And from those vile decoys</p>
<p class="t0">That slay their thousands unaware,</p>
<p class="t0">We pray thee save us, and declare</p>
<p class="t0">Thy wrath against what man soe’er</p>
<p class="t2">Such evil means employs.</p>
</div>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">Chasten, correct and scourge the boys</p>
<p class="t2">Who count it nobly done</p>
<p class="t0">To turn to grief our marriage joys,</p>
<p class="t0">To take our precious eggs for toys,</p>
<p class="t0">And bear away with mocking noise</p>
<p class="t2">The spoil so foully won.</p>
</div>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">But most from men that use the gun,</p>
<p class="t2">That engine of ill scope,</p>
<p class="t0">For refuge unto thee we run;</p>
<p class="t0">They march to slay us in the sun,</p>
<p class="t0">And through the dark, which others shun,</p>
<p class="t2">Their murderous way they grope.</p>
</div>
<div class="verse">
<p class="t0">Lastly, we pray thee, on the Pope</p>
<p class="t2">Prevail to let us be;</p>
<p class="t0">We would not hang him in a rope,</p>
<p class="t0">And have as good a right, we hope,</p>
<p class="t0">Unstrangled under heaven’s high cope,</p>
<p class="t2">To live our lives as he.</p>
<p class="lr">—Henry Johnstone.</p>
</div>
<div class="pagenum" id="Page_73">73</div>
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