Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ELEGY ON A YOUNG THRUSH, WHICH ESAPED ... COULD NOT BE FOUND, by HELEN MARIA WILLIAMS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ELEGY ON A YOUNG THRUSH, WHICH ESAPED ... COULD NOT BE FOUND, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Mistaken bird, ah whither hast thou strayed?
Last Line: The good he well discerns through folly miss?
Subject(s): Birds; Thrushes


MISTAKEN bird, ah whither hast thou strayed?
My friendly grasp why eager to elude?
This hand was on thy pinion lightly laid,
And feared to hurt thee by a touch too rude.

Is there no foresight in a thrush's breast,
That thou down yonder gulf from me wouldst go?
That gloomy area lurking cats infest,
And there the dog may rove, alike thy foe.

I would with lavish crumbs my bird have fed,
And brought a chrystal cup to wet thy bill;
I would have made of moss and down thy bed,
Soft, though not fashioned with a thrush's skill.

Soon as thy strengthened wing could mount the sky,
My willing hand had set my captive free;
Ah, not for her who loves the Muse to buy
A selfish pleasure, bought with pain to thee!

The vital air, and liberty, and light
Had all been thine; and love, and rapturous song,
And sweet parental joys, in rapid flight,
Had led the circle of thy life along.

Securely to my window hadst thou flown,
And ever thy accustomed morsel found;
Nor should thy trusting breast the wants have known
Which other thrushes know when winter frowned.

Framed with the wisdom nature lent to thee,
Thy house of straw had braved the tempest's rage,
And thou through many a spring hadst lived to see
The utmost limit of a thrush's age.

Ill-fated bird! -- and does the thrush's race,
Like Man's, mistake the path that leads to bliss?
Or, when his eye that tranquil path can trace,
The good he well discerns through folly miss?





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