Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE FREED BIRD, by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE FREED BIRD, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Return, return, my bird!
Last Line: "I pierce the blue skies -- I am earth's no more!"
Alternate Author Name(s): Browne, Felicia Dorothea
Subject(s): Birds


RETURN, return, my bird!
I have dressed thy cage with flowers,
'Tis lovely as a violet bank
In the heart of forest bowers.

"I am free, I am free -- I return no more!
The weary time of the cage is o'er;
Through the rolling clouds I can soar on high,
The sky is around me -- the blue, bright sky!
The hills lie beneath me, spread far and clear,
With their glowing heath - flowers and bounding deer;
I see the waves flash on the sunny shore --
I am free, I am free -- I return no more!"

Alas, alas! my bird!
Why seek'st thou to be free?
Wert thou not blessed in thy little bower,
When thy song breathed naught but glee?

"Did my song of the summer breathe naught but glee?
Did the voice of the captive seem sweet to thee?
-- Oh! hadst thou known its deep meaning well,
It had tales of a burning heart to tell!
From a dream of the forest that music sprang,
Through its notes the peal of a torrent rang;
And its dying fall, when it soothed thee best,
Sighed for wild flowers and a leafy nest."

Was it with thee thus, my bird?
Yet thine eye flashed clear and bright;
I have seen the glance of sudden joy
In its quick and dewy light.

"It flashed with the fire of a tameless race,
With the soul of the wild-wood, my native place!
With the spirit that panted through heaven to soar:
Woo me not back -- I return no more!
My home is high, amidst rocking trees,
My kindred things are the star and the breeze,
And the fount unchecked in its lonely play,
And the odours that wander afar away!"

Farewell -- farewell, then, bird!
I have called on spirits gone,
And it may be they joyed, like thee, to part --
Like thee, that wert all my own!

"If they were captives, and pined like me,
Though love may guard them, they joyed to be free;
They sprang from the earth with a burst of power,
To the strength of their wings, to their triumph's hour!
Call them not back when the chain is riven,
When the way of the pinion is all through heaven!
Farewell! -- with my song through the clouds I soar,
I pierce the blue skies -- I am earth's no more!"





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