There is a singer everyone has heard, Loud, a mid-summer and a mid-wood bird, Who makes the solid tree trunks sound again. He says that leaves are old and that for flowers Mid-summer is to spring as one to ten. He says the early petal-fall is past When pear and cherry bloom went down in showers On sunny days a moment overcast; And comes that other fall we name the fall. He says the highway dust is over all. The bird would cease and be as other birds But that he knows in singing not to sing. The question that he frames in all but words Is what to make of a diminished thing. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CUDDLE DOON by ALEXANDER ANDERSON ON A SOLDIER FALLEN IN THE PHILIPPINES by WILLIAM VAUGHN MOODY THE BALLAD OF BOUILLABAISSE by WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY WRITTEN ON A GLOOMY DAY, IN SICKNESS. THACKWOOD, 4TH JUNE, 1786 by SUSANNA BLAMIRE YOUTH AND KNOWLEDGE by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT DOVECOTT MILL: 14. THE WIFE by PHOEBE CARY THE LEGEND OF GOOD WOMEN: 7. THE LEGEND OF PHILOMELA by GEOFFREY CHAUCER |