I heard a bird at dawn

James Stephens 1882 (Dublin) – 1950



I heard a bird at dawn
    Singing sweetly on a tree,
That the dew was on the lawn,
    And the wind was on the lea;
But I didn't listen to him,
    For he didn't sing to me.

I didn't listen to him,
    For he didn't sing to me
That the dew was on the lawn
    And the wind was on the lea;
I was singing at the time
    Just as prettily as he.

I was singing all the time,
    Just a prettily as he,
About the dew upon the lawn
    And the wind upon the lea;
So I didn't listen to him
    As he sang upon a tree.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

34 sec read
107

Quick analysis:

Scheme abABcB cBABdb dbabcb
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 519
Words 110
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 6, 6, 6

James Stephens

James Stephens was an Irish Republican and the founding member of an originally unnamed revolutionary organisation in Dublin on 17 March 1858, later to become known as the Irish Republican Brotherhood, also referred to as the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood by contemporaries. more…

All James Stephens poems | James Stephens Books

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