Tree with a Bird in it — Tea o' Herbs by Edna St. Vincent Millay

_Edna St. Vincent Millay_ (Recites in a flippant voice which occasionally chokes up with irrepressible emotion, and clenching her hands tensely as she notices that the Grackle has hopped twice.

) TEA O' HERBS

O I have brought in now Bergamot, A packet o' brown senna And an iron pot;

In my scarlet gown I make all hot.

And other men and girls Write like me Setting herbs a-plenty In their poetry (_Bergamot for hair-oil,_ _Bergamot for tea!

_) And they may do ill now Or they may do well, (Little should I care now What they have to sell--) But what bergamot and rue are None of them can tell.

[Illustration] All above my bitter tea I have set a lid (As my bitter heart By its red gown hid) They write of bergamot Because I did....

(From its padded hangers They've snatched my red gown, Men as well as girls And gone down town, Flaunting my vocabulary, Every verb and noun!

) And the grackle moans High above the pot, He is sick with herbs ...

_And am I not,_ _Who have brought in_ _Bergamot?

_ _John V. A.

Weaver_ (With a strong note of infant brutality.

)