Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


BIRD by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM

First Line: BIRDIE, BIRDIE, WILL YOU PET?
Subject(s): BIRDS;

"BIRDIE, Birdie, will you, pet?
Summer is far and far away yet.
You'll have silken quilts and a velvet bed,
And a pillow of satin for your head."
"I'd rather sleep in the ivy wall:
No rain comes through, though I hear it fall;
The sun peeps gay at dawn of day,
And I sing, and wing away, away!"
"O Birdie, Birdie, will you, pet?
Diamond stones and amber and jet
We'll string on a necklace fair and fine,
To please this pretty bird of mine."
"Oh! thanks for diamonds, and thanks for jet;
But here is something daintier yet,-
A feather necklace, round and round,
That I would not sell for a thousand pound!"
"O Birdie, Birdie, won't you, pet?
We'll buy you a dish of silver fret,
A golden cup and an ivory seat,
And carpets soft beneath your feet."
"Can running water be drunk from gold?
Can a silver dish the forest hold?
A rocking twig is the finest chair,
And the softest paths lie through the air:
Good-by, good-by, to my lady fair."




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