Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE DOR-HAWK, by MARY HOWITT


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE DOR-HAWK, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Fern-owl, churn-owl, or goat-sucker
Last Line: Like a pleasant voice of dreams!
Alternate Author Name(s): Botham, Mary
Subject(s): Birds; Hawks


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!





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