ONE on another against the wall Pile up the books, -- I am done with them all! I shall be wise, if I ever am wise, Out of my own ears, and of my own eyes. One day of the woods and their balmy light, -- One hour on the top of a breezy hill, Where in the sassafras all out of sight The blackbird is splitting his slender bill For the ease of his heart! Do you think if he said I will sing like this bird with the mud-colored back And the two little spots of gold over his eyes, Or like to this shy little creature that flies So low to the ground, with the amethyst rings About her small throat, -- all alive when she sings With a glitter of shivering green, -- for the rest, Gray shading to gray, with the sheen of her breast Half rose and half fawn, -- Or like this one so proud, That flutters so restless, and cries out so loud, With stiff horny beak and a topknotted head, And a lining of scarlet laid under his wings, -- Do you think, if he said, "I'm ashamed to be black!" That he could have shaken the sassafras-tree As he does with the song he was born to? not he! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CONTRA MORTEM: THE WOMAN'S GENITALS by HAYDEN CARRUTH MOTHERHOOD by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON HOMAGE TO SEXTUS PROPERTIUS: 11 by EZRA POUND UNDER A TELEPHONE POLE by CARL SANDBURG TONE PICTURE (MALIPIERO: IMPRESSONI DAL VERO) by JEAN STARR UNTERMEYER |