Fern-owl, Churn-owl, or Goat-sucker, Night-jar, Dor-hawk, or whate'er Be thy name among a dozen, -- Whip-poor-Will's and Who-are-you's cousin, Chuck-Will's-widow's near relation, Thou art at thy night vocation, Thrilling the still evening air! In the dark brown wood beyond us, Where the night lies dusk and deep; Where the fox his burrow maketh, Where the tawny owl awaketh Nightly from his day-long sleep; There Dor-hawk is thy abiding, Meadow green is not for thee; While the aspen branches shiver, 'Mid the roaring of the river, Comes thy chirring voice to me. Bird, thy form I never looked on, And to see it do not care; Thou hast been, and thou art only As a voice of forests lonely, Heard and dwelling only there. Bringing thoughts of dusk and shadow; Trees huge-branched in ceaseless change; Pallid night-moths, spectre-seeming; All a silent land of dreaming, Indistinct and large and strange. Be thou thus, and thus I prize thee More than knowing thee face to face, Head and beak and leg and feather, Kept from harm of touch and weather, Underneath a fine glass-case. I can read of thee, and find out How thou fliest, fast or slow; Of thee in the north and south too, Of thy great moustachioed mouth too, And thy Latin name also. But, Dor-hawk, I love thee better While thy voice unto me seems Coming o'er the evening meadows, From a dark brown land of shadows, Like a pleasant voice of dreams! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE DAY AND THE WORK by EDWIN MARKHAM THERE IS NO NATURAL RELIGION (B) by WILLIAM BLAKE SESTINA: ALTAFORTE by EZRA POUND A PETITION TO TIME by BRYAN WALLER PROCTER THE LOVE OF CHRIST WHICH PASSETH KNOWLEDGE by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI HE MOURNS FOR THE CHANGE THAT HAS COME UPON HIM AND BELOVED by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS |