A LITTLE BIRD TOLD ME
'Twas but a short time gone
When first I met the feathered one
Who spoke to me in graceful song
Though 'twas right, or maybe wrong,
For he sung of one so fair and sweat
As tulip buds where fairies sleep.
In ringlets soft here hair was gold
Her eyes were blue, lovely, bold
Her oval face was sweetly flushed
Her lips tender as she blushed
She was the most graceful being in the land
Though ripe with soil or barren with sand.
My feathered friend spoke once more
As he fluttered bright feathers in the morn
"She lives where flowers ever bloom
Where no ugly mountains ever loom
Where the sun is crimson in the sky
And the birds are far prettier than I"
The lakes are always silver-green
No harmful thing is ever seen
Then I said to the bird on high
"I believe you not! So away you fly
No place on Earth is as you speak
With no dusty mountain and muddy creek."
"Nay" sang my delicate friend in glee,
"I hearken to your words and flee
But before my soft wings carry me on,
I wish to tell you before I'm gone
'Twas not on Earth I glimpsed this girl
'Twas high in the blue; the land of gold and pearl
It was hard to believe this tale of splendour
Though I will ever more remember
And though I'll always be in doubt
I'll state on thing while I'm about
The heavens hold many mysterious things
And that is where this tale clings.