There's something quieter than sleep 1
Within this inner room!
It wears a sprig upon its breast－
And will not tell its name.
Some touch it, and some kiss it－5
Some chafe its idle hand－
It has a simple gravity
I do not understand!
I would not weep if I were they－9
How rude in one to sob!
Might scare the quiet fairy
Back to her native wood!
While simple-hearted neighbors 13
Chat of the "Early dead"－
We－prone to periphrasis
Remark that Birds have fled!
Within this inner room!
It wears a sprig upon its breast－
And will not tell its name.
Some touch it, and some kiss it－5
Some chafe its idle hand－
It has a simple gravity
I do not understand!
I would not weep if I were they－9
How rude in one to sob!
Might scare the quiet fairy
Back to her native wood!
While simple-hearted neighbors 13
Chat of the "Early dead"－
We－prone to periphrasis
Remark that Birds have fled!
(F.62/J.45)
[1] quieter than sleep:: death.
[2] inner room:: a nest.
[3] It:: the bird. sprig:: a youth.
[7] simple gravity:: hummingbird can stay in mid-air.
[11] quiet:: alluding the hum made by the bird's rapid wing beats.
[11, 12] fairy, wood:: a hint on wood-nymph (OED 1861).
[14] Early dead:: the death of the hummingbird's youth.
the Brazilian Wood Nymph, which is itself one of the brightest and prettiest coloured birds in existence. This nest is very small indeed, like those of most other humming birds, and is built of the down out of the pods of the silk-cotton tree, as it is called by the natives, interwoven with the most delicate kinds of lichen. But here again, its chief interest arises from the position in which it is built, as it is attached to the slenderest tendril of some creeper, which, having climbed up round the trunk of some tree, allows its tendrils to hang loosely down and blow about in the wind. It is on one of these tendrils generally, resting on two of the leaves, that the Wood Nymph builds its nest. ─ Report of the Marlborough College (1867)
