1. The birds have sung their evensong
From peak and vale the echoes strong

2. The dogs are yelping in their glee
With eyes that for the prey-beast see

3. The huntsman winds his rallying-cry
The hawk yet fluttering from on high

4. Fearing the minor note to stay
His pinions in their tuneful play

5. I said, “Now, master, end their pain
Whose mothers many kittens yean

6. And send to me the coney fleet”
He brought it on its airy feet

7. Still breathing, and the eggs as well
Its nestlings premature that fell

8. The yellow, and the black, and white
Crouching, with shoulders fain for flight,

9. Round-faced, bright-eyed, their mothers’ suns
Moons waxing on their ninths and ones

10. Their little thigh the marks betray
Pointed, and pied, and red are they

11. Delighted, and delineate fair,
Beloved, appellation-rare,

12. High-bred, high-snouted, trumpet-mouthed,
Long, lank, and lean, by hunger pouched

13. Hearing their cry come faint and far
Their rage of greed, their note of war

14. The rabbits from their holes refrain,
The hounds from off their traces rein

15. Till, by the cooking pot besped,
The shrivelled limbs give up the dead