I A haw, with branches of bloom;
And a bird on the topmost,
Sitting and swinging,
And merrily singing, --
O'er all the sunshiny meadow
Her glad music flinging. II A brook is under the haw,
With pads and white blossoms;
And eddying, curling,
It gives them a twirling,
And half drowns the tender white lilies
With foaming and whirling. III But out of the brook there slides
A serpent gold-crested;
Star-bright are his eyes,
But his lips are lies, --
He spoils the nest of the redbreast,
And wounded she flies.