Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE BIRD AND THE TREE, by FREDERICK RIDGELY TORRENCE



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE BIRD AND THE TREE, by                 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.





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