What the Birds Said
THE birds against the April windFlew northward, singing as they flew;They sang, "The land we leave behindHas swords for corn-blades, blood for dew."
"O wild-birds, flying from the South,What saw and heard ye, gazing down?""We saw the mortar's upturned mouth,The sickened camp, the blazing town!
"Beneath the bivouac's starry lamps,We saw your march-worn children die;In shrouds of moss, in cypress swamps,We saw your dead uncoffined lie.
"We heard the starving prisoner's sighs,And saw, from line and trench, your sonsFollow our flight with home-sick eyesBeyond the battery's smoking guns."
"And heard and saw ye only wrongAnd pain," I cried, "O wing-worn flocks?""We heard," they sang, "the freedman's song,The crash of Slavery's broken locks!
"We saw from new, uprising StatesThe treason-nursing mischief spurned,As, crowding Freedom's ample gates,The long estranged and lost returned.
"O'er dusky faces, seamed and old,And hands horn-hard with unpaid toil,With hope in every rustling fold,We saw your star-dropt flag uncoil.
"And struggling up through sounds accursed,A grateful murmur clomb the air;A whisper scarcely heard at first,It filled the listening heavens with prayer.
"And sweet and far, as from a star,Replied a voice which shall not cease,Till, drowning all the noise of war,It sings the blessed song of peace!"
So to me, in a doubtful dayOf chill and slowly greening spring,Low stooping from the cloudy gray,The wild-birds sang or seemed to sing.
They vanished in the misty air,The song went with them in their flight;But lo! they left the sunset fair,And in the evening there was light.April, 1864.
Words in this poem
- northward a.
- Toward the north; nearer to the north than to the east or west point. [AS. noredhweard.]
- starry a.
- Abounding with stars; adorned with stars.
- uprising n.
- Act of rising; also, a steep place; an ascent.
- seamed a.
- Out of condition; not in good condition; -- said of a hawk.
- uncoil v. t.
- To unwind or open, as a coil of rope. Derham. [1st pref. un- + coil.]
- shall v. i.
- To owe; to be under obligation for. [OE. shal, schal, imp. sholde, scholde, AS. scal, sceal, I am obliged, imp. scolde, sceolde, inf. sculan; akin to OS. skulan, pres. skal, imp. skolda, D. zullen,]
- greening n.
- A greenish apple, of several varieties, among which the Rhode Island greening is the best known for its fine-grained acid flesh and its excellent keeping quality.
- went n.
- Course; way; path; journey; direction.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
What the Birds Said is in the public domain. This text is taken from Anti-Slavery Poems and Songs of Labor and Reform, Complete Volume III of The Works of John Greenleaf Whittier, Project Gutenberg ebook #9580; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: John Greenleaf Whittier, What the Birds Said, in Anti-Slavery Poems and Songs of Labor and Reform (1865), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #9580, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/whittier-anti-slavery/what-the-birds-said.html, id L24923.
Form and metre
What the Birds Said is 45 lines in 11 stanzas. The rhyme scheme is ABAB, complete in 8 of its 11 stanzas. The metre is iambic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 92%).
See other poems in iambic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 ABAB windA · flewB · behindA · dewB
- 2 ABAB southA · downB · mouthA · townB
- 3 -A-A lamps · dieA · swamps · lieA
- 4 ABAB sighsA · sonsB · eyesA · gunsB
- 5 ABAB wrongA · flocksB · songA · locksB
- 6 ABAB statesA · spurnedB · gatesA · returnedB
- 7 ABAB oldA · toilB · foldA · uncoilB
- 8 ABAB accursedA · airB · firstA · prayerB
- 9 -A-A star · ceaseA · war · peaceA
- 10 ABAB dayA · springB · grayA · singB
- 11 ABAB- airA · flightB · fairA · lightB · —
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against iambic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| THE birds against the April wind | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Flew northward, singing as they flew; | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| They sang, "The land we leave behind | 8 | ········ |
| Has swords for corn-blades, blood for dew." | 8 | ········ |
| "O wild-birds, flying from the South, | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| What saw and heard ye, gazing down?" | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| "We saw the mortar's upturned mouth, | 8 | ···/˘˘/· |
| The sickened camp, the blazing town! | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| "Beneath the bivouac's starry lamps, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| We saw your march-worn children die; | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| In shrouds of moss, in cypress swamps, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| We saw your dead uncoffined lie. | 8 | ········ |
| "We heard the starving prisoner's sighs, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| And saw, from line and trench, your sons | 8 | ········ |
| Follow our flight with home-sick eyes | 8 | /˘/····· |
| Beyond the battery's smoking guns." | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| "And heard and saw ye only wrong | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| And pain," I cried, "O wing-worn flocks?" | 8 | ········ |
| "We heard," they sang, "the freedman's song, | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| The crash of Slavery's broken locks! | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| "We saw from new, uprising States | 8 | ····˘/˘· |
| The treason-nursing mischief spurned, | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| As, crowding Freedom's ample gates, | 8 | ·/˘/˘/˘· |
| The long estranged and lost returned. | 8 | ··˘/··˘/ |
| "O'er dusky faces, seamed and old, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| And hands horn-hard with unpaid toil, | 8 | ·····˘/· |
| With hope in every rustling fold, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| We saw your star-dropt flag uncoil. | 8 | ·······/ |
| "And struggling up through sounds accursed, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| A grateful murmur clomb the air; | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| A whisper scarcely heard at first, | 8 | ·/˘/˘··· |
| It filled the listening heavens with prayer. | 9 | ···/˘/˘·· |
| "And sweet and far, as from a star, | 8 | ········ |
| Replied a voice which shall not cease, | 8 | ˘/······ |
| Till, drowning all the noise of war, | 8 | ·/˘····· |
| It sings the blessed song of peace!" | 8 | ····˘··· |
| So to me, in a doubtful day | 8 | ·····/˘· |
| Of chill and slowly greening spring, | 8 | ···/˘/˘· |
| Low stooping from the cloudy gray, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The wild-birds sang or seemed to sing. | 8 | ········ |
| They vanished in the misty air, | 8 | ·/˘··/˘· |
| The song went with them in their flight; | 8 | ········ |
| But lo! they left the sunset fair, | 8 | ·····/·· |
| And in the evening there was light. | 8 | ···/˘··· |
| April, 1864. | 2 | /˘ |
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