Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE BIRD AND THE TREE, by FREDERICK RIDGELY TORRENCE Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Blackbird, blackbird in the cage Last Line: Blackbird. Subject(s): Freedom; Lynching; Liberty | ||||||||
Blackbird, blackbird in the cage, There's something wrong to-night. Far off the sheriff's footfall dies, The minutes crawl like last year's flies Between the bars, and like an age The hours are long to-night. The sky is like a heavy lid Out here beyond the door to-night. What's that? A mutter down the street. What's that? The sound of yells and feet. For what you didn't do or did You'll pay the score to-night. No use to reek with reddened sweat, No use to whimper and to sweat. They've got the rope; they've got the guns, They've got the courage and the guns; An that's the reason why to-night No use to ask them any more. They'll fire the answer through the door -- You're out to die to-night. There where the lonely cross-road lies, There is no place to make replies; But silence, inch by inch, is there, And the right limb for a lynch is there; And a lean daw waits for both your eyes, Blackbird. Perhaps you'll meet again some place. Look for the mask upon the face; That's the way you'll know them there -- A white mask to hide the face. And you can halt and show them there The things that they are deaf to now, And they can tell you what they meant -- To wash the blood with blood. But how If you are innocent? Blackbird singer, blackbird mute, They choked the seed you might have found. Out of a thorny field you go -- For you it may be better so -- And leave the sowers of the ground To eat the harvest of the fruit, Blackbird. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LOVE THE WILD SWAN by ROBINSON JEFFERS AFTER TENNYSON by AMBROSE BIERCE QUARTET IN F MAJOR by WILLIAM MEREDITH CROSS THAT LINE by NAOMI SHIHAB NYE EMANCIPATION by ELIZABETH ALEXANDER EYE-WITNESS by FREDERICK RIDGELY TORRENCE THE SON; SOUTHERN OHIO MARKET TOWN by FREDERICK RIDGELY TORRENCE A VISION OF SPRING (LATE WINTER, 1915) by FREDERICK RIDGELY TORRENCE |
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