Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, CAGED, by GRACE DENIO LITCHFIELD


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

CAGED, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: It was born behind bars, but it knew it had wings
Last Line: But not one understood.
Subject(s): Animals


IT was born behind bars, but it knew it had wings,
And it felt God had meant it for happier things;
And it sang of the joys that it never had known—
Of fetterless flights over fields flower-strown;
Of the green of the forest and gold of the wheat:
Of the thrill of the tree-top, just touched by its feet;
Of the feel of a lily-leaf, brushed by its breast,
And the splash of a raindrop, caught on its crest.
It sang of the beauty, the rapture of flying,
The palpitant air to its heart-beats replying,
Naught over, naught under, save limitless blue
And the music of wing-strokes, rhythmic and true.
It sang, and men said that its song was good;
But not one understood.

Then a bird of the fields they brought in from a snare,
And a day and a night held it prisoner there.
And a night and a day, unbelieving, distraught,
With impassible fate for its freedom it fought,
Though it bled at the breast blindly beating the bars
As if strength of desire should force way to the stars;
Till men pitied, and said: "It was free its life long;
Who could bid it endure but a day of such wrong?"
And they flung wide the door, and the bird, flashing through,
Swept away, like a leaf in a gale, from their view.

Then the other, behind the closed bars of its fate,
Once again sang its heart out—its need, co-create,
Of the broad and the boundless. In passionate song
It besought men to right for one day its life's wrong—
To bestow for a day, or for one only hour,
The leave to make proof of its God-given power;
For one hour only to float on free wings
In the world where its soul lived—the world of best things,
Of commensurate effort and gain, of desire,
Unlinked from despair, mounting higher and higher
Till lost in attainment—the world of clear visions,
True measures, high aims, and untrammelled decisions—
The world God had made it for. So its song rose,
Ecstatic, tumultuous, thrilled with wild woes
And delicious complainings, until the last note
Broke off in an exquisite cry in its throat.
And men listened, and said that the song was good.
But not one understood.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net