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Partridge Poems

Table of Contents

  1. The Partridge by John Burroughs
  2. Partridges by Alonzo Teall Worden

  1. The Partridge

    by John Burroughs

    List the booming from afar,
    Soft as hum of roving bee,
    Vague as when on distant bar
    Fall the cataracts of the sea.

    Yet again, a sound astray,
    Was it the humming of the mill?
    Was it cannon leagues away?
    Or dynamite beyond the hill?

    'T is the grouse with kindled soul,
    Wistful of his mate and nest,
    Sounding forth his vernal roll
    On his love-enkindled breast.

    List his fervid morning drum,
    List his summons soft and deep,
    Calling spice-bush till she come,
    Waking bloodroot from her sleep.

    Ah! ruffled drummer, let thy wings
    Beat a march the days will heed,
    Wake and spur the tardy spring,
    Till minstrel voices jocund ring,
    And spring is spring in very deed.

  2. Partridges

    by Alonzo Teall Worden

    Under the alders, along the brooks,
    Under the hemlocks, along the hill,
    Spreading their plumage with furtive looks,
    Daintily pecking the leaves at will;
    Whir! and they flit from the startled sight, —
    And the forest is silent, the air is still.

    Crushing the leaves 'neath our careless feet,
    Snapping the twigs with a heavy tread,
    Dreamy October is late and sweet,
    And stooping we gather a blossom dead;
    Boom! and our heart has a thunderous beat
    As the gray apparition flits overhead.

    Up from the path with a thunderous roar
    That startles the dreamer amid his dreams,
    Till he peers into vistas that open before
    For the flash of the plumage with silver gleams:
    Why, modest brown hermit, thus fearful of him
    Who would share in the secrets of forest and streams?

    I lie on windows of leaves and gaze
    At thy innocent preening of serrate wing,
    Or watch where the last crimson colors blaze,
    And the red autumn leaves to the maple cling, —
    Too fond of this life myself, to destroy
    The motion and life I am worshiping.

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