YOU make talk about your bobolinks, and the music that they raise; You can tell about your thrushes, and their songs on joyous days— For years and years the eager voice of Southerners we've heard, While they say there is no music like a Georgia mocking bird! Bright are the feathered songsters, sweet are the songs they sing, But the Umpire, when you tell it all, is the song-bird of the spring! The oriole sings gayly, and we love the meadow-lark, But nearer, dearer to our hearts is the umpire's April bark— We even like the crow's caw-caw and the shrilling, mocking jay, But better yet is "Batter-rup" in the umpire's matchless way! The robin is our earliest bird—we hark to hear him sing— But the Umpire, with his raucous squawk, is the song-bird of the spring! For it's "Stur-rike one," and "Out at first," and "Safe at second base," It's "One more crack and out ya go," and "Close that vacant face!" It's "Take the air, you're through to-day," and "Three across the plate"— "Yuh can't make hits unless yuh swing," and "There's the outside gate!" Oh, joyous are the lilting birds—we listen while they sing— But the Umpire is the Bird of Birds, the song-bird of the spring! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DOMESDAY BOOK: HENRY MURRAY by EDGAR LEE MASTERS A FRAGMENT by GEORGE GORDON BYRON THE BENCH OF BOORS by HERMAN MELVILLE THE PROUD MISS MACBRIDE; A LEGEND OF GOTHAM by JOHN GODFREY SAXE THE LACHRYMATORY by CHARLES TENNYSON TURNER BEAUTY OF NATURE by HENRY ALFORD A SALON SCENE by ANTON ALEXANDER VON AUERSPERG CLIO, NINE ECLOGUES IN HONOUR OF NINE VIRTUES: 1. TRUE AND CHASTE LOVE by WILLIAM BASSE |