Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, WILD BIRD, by HAROLD TROWBRIDGE PULSIFER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

WILD BIRD, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Wild bird with frightened eyes
Last Line: Wild bird with frightened eyes?
Subject(s): Birds


Wild bird with frightened eyes,
Wild bird with beating wing,
Save in the lonely skies
Have you no song to sing?

Wild bird, the open air
Is but a crystal cell;
Song cannot tarry there
Nor any echoes dwell.

Wild bird with fluttered heart,
Wild bird with silent throat,
What calls you far apart
Where cloud and star-dust float?

Wild bird, each cloud, sun-bright,
Is mirrored in your eyes,
And there the stars of night
In flaming ranks arise!

Wild bird with throbbing breast,
Wild bird in ceaseless flight,
Is yours an endless quest
Beyond all human sight?

Wild bird, I know a tree
So tall and straight and fair,
Where every leaf swings free
To pilgrims of the air!

And this I know, wild bird:
Each living, leafy gate
Will open at a word, --
Must that word always wait?

Within that verdant tree
There is a boundless land
Which they alone may see
Who enter hand in hand.

And some find freedom there
Vaster than all your skies.
When shall we greatly dare, --
Wild bird with frightened eyes?





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