A hundred thousand birds salute the day: -- One solitary bird salutes the night: Its mellow grieving wiles our grief away, And tunes our weary watches to delight; It seems to sing the thoughts we cannot say, To know and sing them, and to set them right; Until we feel once more that May is May, And hope some buds may bloom without a blight. This solitary bird outweighs, outvies, The hundred thousand merry-making birds Whose innocent warblings yet might make us wise Would we but follow when they bid us rise, Would we but set their notes of praise to words And launch our hearts up with them to the skies. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LINES INSCRIBED UPON A CUP FORMED FROM A SKULL by GEORGE GORDON BYRON RELIGIO LAICI; OR, A LAYMAN'S FAITH by JOHN DRYDEN ARMY CORRESPONDENT'S LAST RIDE; FIVE FORKS, APRIL 1, 1865 by GEORGE ALFRED TOWNSEND THE MAIMED DEBAUCHEE by JOHN WILMOT THE MAGIC MIRROR by HENRY MILLS ALDEN ON BOARD THE CUMBERLAND by GEORGE HENRY BOKER TO HIS FRIEND THE AUTHOR UPON HIS POEM by CHRISTOPHER BROOKE |