Within a park's area vast,
Where grassy slopes and planted glades,
Where the thron'd chesnuts, cones, and mast,
Strew'd the wide woodland's mingled shades;
From antler'd oaks the acorns shower'd,
As blew the sharp October breeze;
And from the lighter ashes pour'd
With the first frost their jetty keys.
Attracted there a countless throng
Of birds resorted to the woods,
With various cries, and various song,
Cheering the cultur'd solitudes.
In the high elms gregarious rooks
Were heard, loud clam'ring with the daw;
And alders, crowding on the brooks,
The willow wren and halcyon saw;
And where, through reeds and sedges steal
With slower course th' obstructed tide,
The shieldrake, and the timid teal,
And water rail, and widgeon hide.
The lake's blue wave in plumy pride
The swan repell'd with ebon foot,
And ducks Muscovian, scarlet-eyed,
Sail'd social with the dusky coot.
The partridge on the sunny knowl
Securely call'd her running brood,
And here at large the turkeys prowl
As free as in their native wood;
With quick short note the pheasant crow'd,
While, scudding through the paddocks spacious,
In voice monotonous and loud,
Was seen the guinea fowl pugnacious.
The mistress who presided here
Each bird indigenous protected;
While many a feather'd foreigner
Was from remoter climes collected.
A Jay among these scenes was hatch'd,
Who fancied that indulgent nature
His grace and beauty ne'er had match'd,
Not ever form'd so fair a creature.
His wings, where blues of tend'rest shade
Declin'd so gradually to jet;
Plumes like gray clouds, that o'er the red
Float when the summer sun is set;
Like Sachem's diadem, a crest
Rising to mark him for dominion;
In short, that never bird possess'd
Such charms, was his confirm'd opinion.
Till wand'ring forth one luckless day,
'Twas his ill fortune to behold
A peacock to the sun display,
Above his lovely shells of gold,
Those shafts, so webb'd, and painted so,
That they seem'd stol'n from Cupid's wing,
And dipp'd in the ethereal bow
That shines above the show'rs of spring;
And, as the light intensely beam'd,
Or as they felt the rustling zephyr,
The em'rald crescents brightly gleam'd
Round lustrous orbs of deep'ning sapphire.
Still, on the peacock as he gaz'd,
The Jay beheld some beauty new,
While high his green panache he rais'd,
And waved his sinuous neck of blue;
And still with keen and jealous eyes,
The restless, vain, impatient Jay
Or perches near, or round him flies,
And marks his manners and his way.
For where his shiv'ring train is spread,
Or near the ant-hills in the copse,
Or in the grass along the mead,
Some radiant feather often drops;
And these, where'er they chanc'd to fall,
The Jay, with eagerness the prize
Hasten'd to seize, collecting all
These snowy shafts with azure eyes,
Fancying that all this plumage gay
He could so manage, as to place
Around his form, and thus display
The peacock's hues, the peacock's grace.
He tried, and so adorn'd appear'd,
Amazing all the folk of feather;
Who, while they gazed at him, were heard
To join in ridicule together,
Gibing and taunting, as they press
Around, and mock his senseless trouble,
While some pluck off his borrow'd dress,
Geese hiss, ducks quack, and turkies gobble.
Shrill screams the stare, and long and loud
The yaffil laughs from aspin gray;
Til scarce escaping from the crowd
With his own plumes, he skulks away.

Be what you are, nor try in vain,
To reach what nature will deny,
Factitious Art can ne'er attain
The grace of young Simplicity.
And ye, whose transient fame arises
From that which others write or say,
Learn hence, how common sense despises
The pilf'ring literary Jay.