Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE INVITATION, by NORMAN ROWLAND GALE Poet's Biography First Line: Come, thrushes, blackcaps, finches, all Last Line: Through all this leafy county! Subject(s): Birds; Country Life; Courtship | ||||||||
COME, thrushes, blackcaps, finches, all, To peck my Laura's bounty! There's not a sweetheart treats you so In all this leafy county. Yes, sparrows too! for God forbid That here in bloom and grasses My Love and I should rank you birds In low and upper classes! Both large and little, russet, bright, I call at Laura's asking; And we shall watch you at your feast, Upon the greensward basking; But this must first be understood By feathered folk, and fully All sweet content! and, blackbird, sir, Remember not to bully! Look down these lovely cherry-aisles At fruit by bills unfretted, The thousand thousand tiny globes Our jealous gardener netted; For, bandits of the air, your troops To storm the orchard muster; And woe betide the burdened tree, And woe the scarlet cluster. My Sweetheart pressed me yesterday To give you of our plenty; She begged two glowing trees for you From out this line of twenty: Why, birds, her cherried lips, more fair Than ever Venus parted, Need only tremble with a wish, To make me tender-hearted! God gave us with a willing hand A share of sky and mountain, With time to idle in the grass And listen to the fountain. Our sideposts and our lintel show His mark of recollection: We pay a tithe to Him through you, The birds of our affection. You cannot come with wings too quick, With appetites too hearty, To please your hostess and your host On Laura's birthday-party. She reaches up a sunburnt hand To free her shining bounty Fall to, my birds! and praise her name Through all this leafy county! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...AS YOU WALK OUT ONE MORNING by GLYN MAXWELL TALE OF THE MAYOR'S SON by GLYN MAXWELL THE RIVALS by JAMES WELDON JOHNSON MARJORIE'S WOOING by EMMA LAZARUS THE FORTUNATE SPILL by MARILYN NELSON REQUEST TO LEDA by DYLAN THOMAS THE COUNTRY FAITH by NORMAN ROWLAND GALE |
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