Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE HAPPY BIRDS, by CELIA LEIGHTON THAXTER Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: All about the gable tall, swift the swallows flit, Last Line: Leave to winter's bitterness our glad and gay good-bye. Subject(s): Summer; Swallows | ||||||||
All about the gable tall, swift the swallows flit, wheel and call and dart and, fluttering, chatter sweet. All along the sloping sunny eaves they perch and sit bright as lapis-lazuli glittering in the heat. O spirits of the summer so dainty, delicate; creatures born of sunshine and cheer and all delight; pray you, but delay a momentyet a little wait ere for southern lands again you spread your wings in flight. Yet the August sun is hot. Yet the days are long though the grass is over-ripe and the aster blows. Still the silence echoes to the sparrow's quiet song; still, though late, in thorny thickets lingers the wild rose. Tarry yet a little, for after you have flown, lonely, all the housetops, and still the air will grow. Where your cheerful voices rang, autumn winds will moan Presently we shall be dull with winter's weight of snow. O that we could follow you and cling to summer's hand, ye happy, happy birds flying lightly through the sky reach with you the rapture of some far, sunny land; leave to winter's bitterness our glad and gay good-bye. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SIXTH-MONTH SONG IN THE FOOTHILLS by GARY SNYDER SWALLOW FLIGHT by SARA TEASDALE EACH SUMMER'S SWALLOWS by JOHN UPDIKE THE DEPARTURE OF THE SWALLOW by WILLIAM HOWITT THE BLUE SWALLOWS by HOWARD NEMEROV THE CLIFF SWALLOWS by DEBRA NYSTROM MAY MORNING by CELIA LEIGHTON THAXTER SPANIARDS' GRAVES AT THE ISLES OF SHOALS by CELIA LEIGHTON THAXTER |
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