Tree with a Bird in it — The Wild by Bliss Carman

THE WILD

Ho, Spring calls clear a message....

The Grackle is not green....

The Mighty Mother Nature She knows just what I mean.

The lilac and the willow The grass and violet They are my wild companions Where I was raised a pet.

The secrets of great nature From childhood I have heard;

Oh, I can tell a wild flower Swiftly from a wild bird;

And Gwendolen and Marna And Myrtle (dead all three ...

Among my wildwood sweethearts Was much mortality).

If they my loves returning Might gather 'neath these boughs (Oh, they would sniff at pear-trees Who loved the Northern Sloughs).

Their wild eternal whisper Would back me up, I ween: "This bird is not a Grackle: A Grackle is not green."

_Grace Hazard and Hilda Conkling_