Explore "The Night Bird: A Myth" by Charles Kingsley on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
A floating, a floating / Across the sleeping sea, / All night I heard a singing bird / Upon the topmost tree.
'Oh came you off the isles of Greece, / Or off the banks of Seine; / Or off some tree in forests free, / Which fringe the western main?'
'I came not off the old world / Nor yet from off the new -- / But I am one of the birds of God / Which sing the whole night through.'
'Oh sing, and wake the dawning -- / Oh whistle for the wind; / The night is long, the current strong, / My boat it lags behind.'
'The current sweeps the old world, / The current sweeps the new; / The wind will blow, the dawn will glow / Ere thou hast sailed them through.'
Eversley, 1848.