One flower is always best;
And, hidden near the nest,
One bird of all the brood
Will sanctify the wood.

"A Fugue", sec. 7. Poems (Melbourne: Thomas C. Lothian, 1912) p. 163. R. C. Croll claimed that these lines were an original verse addressed to his son, "some pertinence being gained by the fact that Robin is an only child"—I Recall: Collections and Recollections (1939) ch. 9