Do you remember how the songthrush sang,
Those lovely liquid notes that spilled
Forth from his throat like a mountain stream
So fresh and clean and how they gushed
And filled the clear air of early spring?
Do you recall that speckled breast, the warm
Brown feathers, upright stance, the bird
Head cocked, alert, upon the lawn,
Say, early in the morning
Soon after dawn when yet the dew
Lay wet upon the grass? Now let me ask
When last you saw a songthrush on the lawn
Or heard one sing so that you knew
That spring had come? This bird, too,
Once commonplace, I fear has now become
Just like the shrike and corncrake that our fathers knew,
As rare a sight as some celestial comet
Or shooting star that lights the darkness of the night.
Pete Crowther
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-songthrush/
