'FATHER, I fear your trade: Surely it's wrong! Little birds limed and made Captive life-long. 'Larks bruise and bleed in jail, Trying to rise; Every caged nightingale Soon pines and dies.' 'Don't be a dolt, my boy! Birds must be caught; My lot is such employ, Yours to be taught. 'Soft shallow stuff as that Out from your head! Just learn your lessons pat, Then off to bed.' Lightless, without a word Bedwise he fares; Groping his way is heard Seek the dark stairs Through the long passage, where Hang the caged choirs: Harp-like his fingers there Sweep on the wires. Next day, at dye of dawn, Freddy was missed: Whither the boy had gone Nobody wist. That week, the next one, whiled: No news of him: Weeks up to months were piled: Hope dwindled dim. Yet not a single night Locked they the door, Waiting, heart-sick, to sight Freddy once more. Hopping there long anon Still the birds hung: Like those in Babylon Captive, they sung. One wintry Christmastide Both lay awake; All cheer within them dried, Each hour an ache. Then some one seemed to flit Soft in below; 'Freddy's come!' Up they sit, Faces aglow. Thereat a groping touch Dragged on the wires Lightly and softly - much As they were lyres; 'Just as it used to be When he came in, Feeling in darkness the Stairway to win!' Waiting a trice or two Yet, in the gloom, Both parents pressed into Freddy's old room. There on the empty bed White the moon shone, As ever since they'd said, 'Freddy is gone!' That night at Durdle-Door Foundered a hoy, And the tide washed ashore One sailor boy. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SIR HUMPHREY GILBERT [1583] by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW OF AN ORCHARD by KATHARINE TYNAN ON THE DEATH OF HER BODY by JAMES KEIR BAXTER MODERN MOSES, OR 'MY POLICY' MAN by JAMES MADISON BELL PSALM 129 by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE BBC by CHARLES WILLIAM BRODRIBB UTOPIA by ROBERT JONES BURDETTE |