'Tweet' pipes the robin as the cat creeps by <br />Her nestling young that in the elderns lie, <br />And then the bluecap tootles in its glee, <br />Picking the flies from orchard apple tree, <br />And 'pink' the chaffinch cries its well-known strain, <br />Urging its kind to utter 'pink' again, <br />While in a quiet mood hedgesparrows try <br />An inward stir of shadowed melody. <br />Around the rotten tree the firetail mourns <br />As the old hedger to his toil returns, <br />Chopping the grain to stop the gap close by <br />The hole where her blue eggs in safety lie. <br />Of everything that stirs she dreameth wrong <br />And pipes her 'tweet tut' fears the whole day long.<br /><br />John Clare<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-firetail-s-nest/
