Whistle like the birds

Ive  often tried when tending sheep & cow
With bits of grass & peels of oaten straw
To whistle like the birds the thrush would start
To hear her song & pause & fly away
The blackbird never cared but sang again
The nightingales fine song I could not try
& when the thrush would mock her song she paused
& sang another song no bird could do
She sang when all were done & beat them all
Ive often sat & mocked them half the day
Behind the hedge-row thorn or bullace tree
I thought how nobly I could act in crowds
The woods & fields were all the books I knew
& every leisure thought was Love & Fame

 

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