Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO THE BLACKBIRD IN MARCH, by CAMILLA DOYLE


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO THE BLACKBIRD IN MARCH, by                    
First Line: O blackbird, try another tune
Last Line: You knew so well, last may and june.
Subject(s): Blackbirds


O Blackbird, try another tune—
You've sung that note for much too long!
You knew quite complicated airs
Last year, and then you perched among
The branches of the flowering pear
Where song-birds ought to be, but now
You poise upon my chimney-pot
As if you really wished to grow
Still blacker from the smuts. How can
You hope to guard your voice from smoke?
And yet I know that some fine day

I'll wake, as in the past I woke,
To hear that you've remembered all
The music of last year
Indeed
The gifted poets, like yourself,
Have chosen smoke and smuts instead
Of ease and cleanness, many times—
Sitting in taverns when they might
Have lived at court, grown rich and sleek,
And carolled for a king's delight.
But all the same, the spring's at hand,
So try at least another tune!
Begin those gay exciting scales
You knew so well, last May and June.





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