38. The Little Beach-Bird by Richard Henry Dana. Stedman, Edmund Clarence, ed. 1900. An American Anthology, 1787-1900

Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

38. The Little Beach-Bird

By Richard Henry Dana


THOU little bird, thou dweller by the sea,
Why takest thou its melancholy voice,
And with that boding cry
Why o’er the waves dost fly?
O, rather, bird, with me	5
Through the fair land rejoice!

Thy flitting form comes ghostly dim and pale,
As driven by a beating storm at sea;
Thy cry is weak and scared,
As if thy mates had shared	10
The doom of us: Thy wail,—
What doth it bring to me?

Thou call’st along the sand, and haunt’st the surge,
Restless and sad; as if, in strange accord
With the motion and the roar	15
Of waves that drive to shore,
One spirit did ye urge—
The Mystery—the Word.

Of thousands, thou, both sepulchre and pall,
Old Ocean! A requiem o’er the dead	20
From out thy gloomy cells
A tale of mourning tells,—
Tells of man’s woe and fall,
His sinless glory fled.

Then turn thee, little bird, and take thy flight	25
Where the complaining sea shall sadness bring
Thy spirit never more;
Come, quit with me the shore,
And on the meadows light
Where birds for gladness sing!	30