Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE CHANGES, by NORMAN ROWLAND GALE Poet's Biography First Line: What bird, if you could be a bird Last Line: For whiter-throated nancy! Subject(s): Birds; Desire; Women | ||||||||
WHAT bird, if you could be a bird, Would you desire to be? Such was the questioning I heard Behind the tulip-tree, Where Nance and Meg and Jenny sat, All showing careless inches Of stocking to the hungry gnat, And chirped like fifty finches! I thereupon began to think What changes best would suit: For Meg, who's plump, I chose a pink, To hop among the fruit. For freckled Jenny's birdlike change, Because she's never-resting, I picked the busy quaketail's range Of flirt and cheep and questing. Too hard the cherryfinch's peck For Nance to wear his shape; Too red the robin's flooded neck, Too brown the titlark's nape. As feathering well the dearest third According to my fancy, A whitethroat seemed the only bird For whiter-throated Nancy! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ARISTOTLE TO PHYLLIS by JOHN HOLLANDER A WOMAN'S DELUSION by SUSAN HOWE JULIA TUTWILER STATE PRISON FOR WOMEN by ANDREW HUDGINS THE WOMEN ON CYTHAERON by ROBINSON JEFFERS TOMORROW by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD LADIES FOR DINNER, SAIPAN by KENNETH KOCH GOODBYE TO TOLERANCE by DENISE LEVERTOV THE COUNTRY FAITH by NORMAN ROWLAND GALE |
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