Letters

Letters written by William Henry Davies

From "Ambition", 1929

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If these six letters came from birds,
What gossip we would hear!
The Thrush would tell me how he sang
For twenty hours in twenty-four.

The Starling, too, would thank me for
A ribbon found down here;
To give his home a lovely line,
As well as comfort there.

And hear what Robin Redbreast says,
I read his letter now:
'My happiest hours are when my legs
Are more than half-way up in snow.'

Hear what the poor Hedge Sparrow writes,
To ease her troubled breast;
She says a Cuckoo lately dumped
An extra youngster in her nest.

The Cuckoo, that forgiven bird,
Writes from his Mediterranean place -
'I hope to be in England soon,
The tenth of April, by God's grace.'

And, Lord, to read the Nightingale -
'My voice,' she says, 'to my own wonder,
Rose into Heaven, all clear and strong,
To lead a chorus full of thunder!'

This work is in the public domain in countries where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or less.