Fern-owl, Churn-owl, or Goat-sucker, Night-jar, Dor-hawk, or whate'er Be thy name among a dozen, -- Whip-poor-Will's and Who-are-you's cousin, Chuck-Will's-widow's near relation, Thou art at thy night vocation, Thrilling the still evening air! In the dark brown wood beyond us, Where the night lies dusk and deep; Where the fox his burrow maketh, Where the tawny owl awaketh Nightly from his day-long sleep; There Dor-hawk is thy abiding, Meadow green is not for thee; While the aspen branches shiver, 'Mid the roaring of the river, Comes thy chirring voice to me. Bird, thy form I never looked on, And to see it do not care; Thou hast been, and thou art only As a voice of forests lonely, Heard and dwelling only there. Bringing thoughts of dusk and shadow; Trees huge-branched in ceaseless change; Pallid night-moths, spectre-seeming; All a silent land of dreaming, Indistinct and large and strange. Be thou thus, and thus I prize thee More than knowing thee face to face, Head and beak and leg and feather, Kept from harm of touch and weather, Underneath a fine glass-case. I can read of thee, and find out How thou fliest, fast or slow; Of thee in the north and south too, Of thy great moustachioed mouth too, And thy Latin name also. But, Dor-hawk, I love thee better While thy voice unto me seems Coming o'er the evening meadows, From a dark brown land of shadows, Like a pleasant voice of dreams! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ADMETUS; TO MY FRIEND RALPH WALDO EMERSON by EMMA LAZARUS TO BEACHEY, 1912 by CARL SANDBURG UNDERWOODS: BOOK 1: 38 by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON VOICE FROM THE CHORUS by ALEXANDER (ALEKSANDR) ALEXANDROVICH BLOK |