James Bird (poet)

James Bird (10 November 1788 – 26 March 1839) was an English poetical writer and dramatist.

Poetical Memoirs. The Exile, A Tale (London: Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, 1823)

• Oh, Woman! Woman! thou art formed to bless
     The heart of restless Man, to chase his care,
  And charm existence by thy loveliness;
     Bright as the sun-beam, as the morning fair,
  If but thy foot fall on a wilderness,
     Flowers spring, and shed their roseate blossoms there,
  Shrouding the thorns that on thy path-way rise,
  And scattering o'er it hues of Paradise!
  Thy voice of love is music to the ear,
     Soothing and soft, and gentle as the stream
  That strays 'mid summer flowers; thy glittering tear
     Is mutely eloquent; thy smile a beam
  Of light ineffable, so sweet, so dear,
     It wakes the heart from sorrow's darkest dream,
  Shedding a hallowed lustre o'er our fate,
  And when it beams we are not desolate!
  • Poetical Memoirs, canto 2, sts. 4–5

• S. Austin Allibone (ed.) Poetical Quotations from Chaucer to Tennyson (1876), p. 662