I TOOK the wren's nest;-- <br />Heaven forgive me! <br />Its merry architects so small <br />Had scarcely finished their wee hall, <br />That, empty still, and neat and fair, <br />Hung idly in the summer air. <br />The mossy walls, the dainty door, <br />Where Love should enter and explore, <br />And Love sit carolling outside, <br />And Love within chirp multiplied;-- <br />I took the wren's nest;-- <br />Heaven forgive me! <br /> <br />How many hours of happy pains <br />Through early frosts and April rains, <br />How many songs at eve and morn <br />O'er springing grass and greening corn, <br />Before the pretty house was made! <br />One little minute, only one, <br />And she'll fly back, and find it--gone! <br />I took the wren's nest: <br />Bird, forgive me! <br /> <br />Thou and thy mate, sans let, sans fear, <br />Ye have before you all the year, <br />And every wood holds nooks for you, <br />In which to sing and build and woo; <br />One piteous cry of birdish pain-- <br />And ye'll begin your life again, <br />And quite forget the lost, lost home <br />In many a busy home to come.-- <br />But I?--Your wee house keep I must <br />Until it crumble into dust. <br />I took the wren's nest: <br />God forgive me!<br /><br />Dinah Maria Mulock Craik<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-wren-s-nest/
