That summer bird its oft-repeated note Chirps from the dottrel ash, and in the hole The green woodpecker made in years remote, It makes its nest. When peeping idlers stroll In anxious plundering moods, they by and by The wryneck's curious eggs, as white as snow, While squinting in the hollow tree, espy. The sitting bird looks up with jetty eye, And waves her head in terror to and fro, Speckled and veined with various shades of brown; And then a hissing noise assails the clown. Quickly, with hasty terror in his breast, From the tree's knotty trunk he slides adown, And thinks the strange bird guards a serpent's nest. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SOUND THE LOUD TIMBREL; MIRIAM'S SONG by THOMAS MOORE ANTIMENIDAS by ALCAEUS OF MYTILENE EPITAPH ON FRANCIS CHARTRES by JOHN ARBUTHNOT MAD WIND by CATHERINE BRADSHAW VOID IN LAW by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING THE HUMAN TOUCH by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON |