~Birds Nests ~

How fresh the air,
the birds how busy now!
In every walk if I but peep,
I find newly made
or finished and lined
with hair and thistledown.

And in the bough
of litlle hawthorn,
huddled up in green,
the leaves still thickening
as spring gets age.

The pinks quite round and
snug closely laid
and linnets of materials
loose and rough ,
the still Hedge Sparrow ,
moping in the shade
near the hedge bottom.

Weaves of homely stuff,
dead grass and mosses green,
and hermitage,
For secrecy and shelter
rightly made;
and beautiful it is to walk
beside the lanes and hedges
where their homes are made.
~~John Clare~~