Analysis of A Captive Throstle

Alfred Austin 1835 (Leeds) – 1913 (Ashford)



Poor little mite with mottled breast,
Half-fledged, and fallen from the nest,
For whom this world hath just begun,
Who want to fly, yet scarce can run;
Why open wide your yellow beak?
Is it for hunger, or to speak-
To tell me that you fain would be
Loosed from my hand to liberty?

Well, you yourself decide your fate,
But be not too precipitate.
Which will you have? If you agree
To quit the lanes, and lodge with me,
I promise you a bed more soft,
Even than that where you aloft
First opened wondering eyes, and found
A world of green leaves all around.
When you awake, you straight shall see
A fresh turf, green and velvety,
Well of clear water, sifted seed,
All things, in short, that bird can need;
And gentle beings, far more fair
Than build on bough, or skim through air,
When all without is wet and bleak,
Laying against your cage their cheek,
To make you pipe shall coax and coo,
And bud their pretty lips at you.
And when the clammy winter rain
Drips from the roof and clouds the pane,
When windows creak and chimneys roar,
And beggars wail outside the door,
And stretch out fingers lank and thin,
You shall be safely housed within,
And through the wood-fire's flickering glow
Watch drifting leaves or driving snow,
Till Marian pulls the shutters up,
And you go sleep, and I go sup.

But now suppose I let you go,
To rains that beat, to winds that blow,
To heedless chance and prowling foe?
Mayhap this very day, alas!
You will be drowned in tangled grass:
Or, that escaped, some slinking stoat
May seize and suck your speckled throat;
Or hawk slow wheeling in the sky
Your fluttering feeble wings descry,
And, straightway downward flashing thence,
Relish and rend your innocence.
Should you survive, and glad and strong
Make autumn spring-like with your song,
You will be lured, the very first,
Where netted berries bulge and burst,
And, by their guardian caught alive,
You may, before I can arrive
To bid him not be so unsparing,
Have paid the forfeit of your daring.
Time too will come, there will not be
Berry on bush, or pod on tree,
Stripped be the hawthorn, bare the holly,
And all the boughs drip melancholy;
And you will have to scrape for food
Amid a frosty solitude.

Which shall it be? Now quick decide!
Safety confined, or peril wide?

Then did the little bird reply:
``'Tis true, as yet I scarce can fly;
But oh! it is such joy to try!
Just as you came, I was beginning
To win my wings, exult in winning;
To feel the promptings of the pinion,
The dawn of a divine dominion
Over the empty air, and over
Fields of young wheat and breadths of clover:
Pledge of a power to scale, some day,
My native elm-tree's topmost spray,
And mid the leaves and branches warm
Sing far beyond the reach of harm.
And shall I barter gift like this
For doled-out joy and measured bliss?
For a trim couch and dainty fare
Forfeit the freedom of the air?
Shall I exchange for punctual food
April's sweet loves and summer's brood;
The dewy nest 'neath twinkling stars
For crushing roof and cramping bars?
No! Come what chance or foe that may,
Menace of death this very day,
The weasel's clutch, the falcon's swoop-
What if these kill? they do not coop.
Autumn's worst ambush, winter's rage,
Are sweeter than the safest cage.''

Off, little mite! I let you fly,
And do as I would be done by.

Nature within your heart hath sown
A wisdom wiser than my own,
And from your choice I learn to prize
The birth-right of unbounded skies,
Delightful danger of being free,
Sweet sense of insecurity;
The privilege to risk one's all
On being nor captive, caged, nor thrall,
The wish to range, the wing to soar
Past space behind, through space before,
The ecstasy of unknown flight,
The doubt, the danger, the delight,
To range and roam, unchained, unvext,
Nor know what worlds will open next;
And, since Death waits both caged and free
To die, at least, of liberty.


Scheme AABBCCDD EEDDXXFFDDGGHHCCIIJJKKLLMMNN MMMOOAXPHXXQQRRSSTTDDDDUU VV PPPTTBBWWXXXXYYHHUUZZXX1 1 2 2 PP 3 3 4 4 DD5 5 KK6 6 AXDD
Poetic Form
Metre 11011101 11010101 11111101 11111111 11011101 11110111 11111111 11111100 1101111 1111010 11111101 11010111 11010111 10111101 110100101 01111101 11011111 01110100 11110101 11011111 01010111 11111111 11011101 10011111 11111101 01110111 01010101 11010101 11010101 01011101 01110101 11110101 0101101001 11011101 110010101 01110111 11011111 11111111 1110101 1110101 11110101 1101111 11011101 11110001 11001011 0110101 10011100 11010101 11011111 11110101 11010101 011100101 11011101 111111010 110101110 11111111 10111111 11011010 01011100 01111111 0101010 1111111 10011101 11010101 11111111 11111111 111111010 111101010 11011010 011001010 100101010 111101110 110101111 1101111 01010101 11010111 01110111 11110101 10110101 10010101 110111001 10110101 010111001 11010101 11111111 10111101 011011 11111111 1011101 11010101 11011111 01111111 10011111 01010111 01111111 01110101 010101101 1110100 0101111 110110111 01110111 11011101 01001011 01010001 110111 11111101 01111101 11111100
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 3,747
Words 708
Sentences 29
Stanzas 7
Stanza Lengths 8, 28, 25, 2, 27, 2, 16
Lines Amount 108
Letters per line (avg) 28
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 427
Words per stanza (avg) 101
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

3:35 min read
63

Alfred Austin

Alfred Austin DL was an English poet who was appointed Poet Laureate in 1896 upon the death of Alfred, Lord Tennyson. more…

All Alfred Austin poems | Alfred Austin Books

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