Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, DECEPTION, by CORA RANDALL FABBRI


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

DECEPTION, by                    
First Line: O bird / sweet, sorrowful swallow speeding
Last Line: And spring comes never here.
Subject(s): Birds


O BIRD,
Sweet, sorrowful swallow speeding to the south,
Ah, was it so?
Didst leave thy home because a rose's mouth
Told thee to go—
Because a rose's mouth,
Blown red in the warm South,
Told thee sweet Spring, white-browed, with violet eyes,
Into the North had fled, and thou must go?
Didst follow her because thy heart was stirred
By one red rose's word,
O Bird?

Poor Bird—
Thou found'st the rose had spoken false to thee.
Spring still is far,
The frost-bound earth puts forth no bloom for thee,
The sky no star.
A wild wind hurts thy breast,
A snow-drop fills thy nest.
O sorrowful, sweet swallow, speed away,
Back to thy South a while. Aye, that is best.
Back o'er the flower-flecked meadows, zephyrstirred,
Back to thy South, O Bird,
Poor Bird!

Poor Heart!
Since thou and I have left our soft sweet South
Joy turned to woe.
False were the words from that false smiling mouth
That bid us go;
That promised we should find
White stars and whisp'ring wind,
And shining daffodils and golden moons.
But we have found bleak skies and harsh winds drear.
O sorrowful, sweet swallow-bird, depart;
Thine is the gladdest, ours the saddest part.
We cannot follow thee, I and my Heart,
Poor Heart!
And Spring comes never here.





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