Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO A DEAD BIRD, by ROBERT JAMES KELLOGG


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO A DEAD BIRD, by                    
First Line: Sweet bird, in life thy tuneful voice
Last Line: Robert james kellogg.
Subject(s): Death; Procrastination; Science; Dead, The; Scientists


SWEET bird, in life thy tuneful voice
Has bid the woods and meads rejoice,
Has greeted glad the new-born day,
Has sung at evening's parting ray
In notes that cheer the gloom away.
Perhaps thy wings rejoicing bore
Thy form thro' fields of air to soar;
Or when the sun had sunk to rest,
Laying thine head upon thy breast,
Hast passed with innocent sleep the night,
And rising ere the morning light
Thy simple thanks in songs hast given
That move the very heart of heaven.
But every joy must end at last,
And now thy happy life is past;
Before me lies thy graceful form,
Once flushed with joyous life and warm.
The rain has soiled thy once fair crest,
And dreary nights have chilled thy breast;
Yet earth has taken thee to rest,
And formed for thee a loving nest;
The sun doth shine with sadder light
Since thou art taken from his sight;
The wind, once rude, has gentler grown,
And softened more his dreary moan
Since thou, sweet bird, hast stilled thy breath
In the ne'er-ending sleep of death.
Thus run my thoughts in study brown;
Dissecting-knives have fallen down,
The bird untouched upon the slab --
Is this the way I work at lab?
Day-dreaming at my work so soon
This warm and drowsy afternoon!
ROBERT JAMES KELLOGG.





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