On the Death of Two Favourite Birds

INVOLV'D in flame and suffocating breath,
A hapless bird was doom'd to sudden death;
The female, touch'd at his uncommon fate,
Survey'd the form of her disfigur'd mate;
With drooping head and shiv'ring wings she stood,
In all the agony of widowhood!
At length, to grief's severest pow'r a prey,
She dropt—and sigh'd her little soul away.

Ye wedded birds, tho' rigid be your doom,
Yet ANNA watches at your early tomb;
For you her flowing pity bursts restraint,
Your dirge is utter'd in her soft complaint,
Your elegy, without the poet's art,
Is writ by sorrow on the purest heart.