Mocking-Bird by Julia Zitella Cocke

Full-throated, trim,
Dapper of limb,
Agile, alert,
Nimbly expert,
Hanging somehow
On topmost bough,
A-top of trees, —
Saying with ease
What other birds
Strive to attain, —
Weaving their words
Over again
In his refrain! —

Deep in the wood
Tormenting owls
Changing his mood,
Home to farm-brood
Teasing the fowls:
Out on the grass
Quick to surpass
Fleetest insect,
Running erect,
Darts at his prize,
Then swiftly flies
To myrtle bower,
There in full power
The world to capture
With his wild rapture, —

Calling and cooing,
Wailing and wooing:
An ode to his love,
A lyric to Dove,
A challenge to Wren,
To Blue-bird and Hen,
To Bob-white and Kildee,
To Catbird and Pewee,
To Robin and Thrush:
Until the whole tree-full
Of sweet singers gleeful
Lose heart and hush:
Outsung and confounded,
Enchanted, astounded,
And flying afar, seek a covert to light on,
Away from this wonderful, maddening Chrichton!

From: Cocke, Zitella, A Doric Reed, 1895, Copeland and Day: Boston, pp. 25-26.
(https://archive.org/details/doricreed00cockrich)

Date: 1895

By: Julia Zitella Cocke (1840-1929)