Six Bird Poems

THE GREENFINCH

On a May morning,
In the greening time
I heard a greenfinch in a college garden
Set to his jargon in a leafy tree;
The long flat call-note, which will be repeated
Through all the hot and dusty days of summer,
Subsumed in a desultory twitter:
The lazy greenfinch, thick-set country cousin
Of the trim, suburban, caged canary -
Green, green, green he calls through the green leaves.

 
THE CHAFFINCH

There's apple-blossom now, for Spring
Has made a definite entrance. With smoke-blue cap,
White epaulettes, and breast a rusty pink,
The chaffinch rattles through his swift-turned song:
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