Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE BARLEY-BIRDS, by NORMAN ROWLAND GALE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE BARLEY-BIRDS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Assuredly the barley-birds
Last Line: To count each bird twice over!
Subject(s): Birds; Courtship


ASSUREDLY the barley-birds
Were speaking in the alder-trees
The list of unimpressive words
They use for their simplicities.
Rob hurried back, on hearing this,
So fast, he seemed to skim the ground,
For Nance had promised him a kiss
For every barley-bird he found.
Stay there, stay there, you barley-birds,
Till Nancy comes to count you!

He glimpsed her by the pillar'd rock
That shows the summit, where a breeze
Began to toss the playmate frock
Of billowy muslin to her knees.
She trembled when, across the brook
Below the heather-bearing crest,
A runner leaped and boldly took
The hillside slanting from her breast.
Stay there, stay there, you barley-birds,
Till Nancy comes to count you!

They went the way that Robin signed,
Toward the clump of alder-trees,
Unwitting how there walked behind
A Boy no taller than their knees,
Who bit his rose-red lips, to force
His giggles back, while in his eyes
Gleamed sparks enough to fire the gorse
That camped in gold on Stillford Rise.
Stay there, stay there, you barley-birds,
Till Nancy comes to count you!

Rob shouted. From the branchy place
A little flock of siskins flew
To find another home apace,
Their tell-tale feathering clear in view!
The freckled godling rarely trips
To such a jig of honied words
As there he tuned while Nancy's lips
Paid one by one for barley-birds.
But Robin, Robin, how unfair
To count each bird twice over!





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