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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


LETTERS by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES

Poet Analysis

First Line: IF THESE SIX LETTERS CAME FROM BIRDS
Last Line: TO LEAD A CHORUS FULL OF THUNDER!'
Subject(s): GOSSIP; LETTERS;

If these six letters came from birds,
What gossip we would hear!
The Thrush would tell me how he sang
For twenty hours in twenty-four.
The Starling, too, would thank me for
A ribbon found down here;
To give his home a lovely line,
As well as comfort there.
And hear what Robin Redbreast says,
I read his letter now:
'My happiest hours are when my legs
Are more than half-way up in snow.'
Hear what the poor Hedge Sparrow writes,
To ease her troubled breast;
She says a Cuckoo lately dumped
An extra youngster in her nest.
The Cuckoo, that forgiven bird,
Writes from his Mediterranean place –
'I hope to be in England soon,
The tenth of April, by God's grace.'
And, Lord, to read the Nightingale –
'My voice,' she says, 'to my own wonder,
Rose into Heaven, all clear and strong,
To lead a chorus full of thunder!'



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