Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE MOCKING-BIRD, by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE MOCKING-BIRD, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: It has a strange wild note - that mocking-bird
Last Line: How he does sing, and scream, and mock us all.
Subject(s): Mockingbirds


IT has a strange wild note -- that Mocking-bird,
I've heard him whistle to the passer by,
And scold like any parrot. Now his note
Mounts to the play-ground of the lark-- high up,
Quite to the sky. And then again it falls,
As a lost star falls, down into the marsh,
The veriest puddle -- but it stops not thus;
'T will croak like any bull-frog, or 't will squeal
Like an old rat, caught tight in the toothed spring
Of man's humane contrivancy --and then
Rejoicing, mock the trap, and yell out "cheese."
So mock we all, and so we imitate
The good a little, and the bad a deal.
The notes of heaven, of earth, sometimes of hell
Are on our tongue-tips. Hear the little wretch,
How he does sing, and scream, and mock us all.






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