Crumbs To The Birds

Charles Lamb 1775 (Inner Temple, London) – 1834 (Edmonton, London)



A bird appears a thoughtless thing,
He's ever living on the wing,
And keeps up such a carolling,
That little else to do but sing
A man would guess had he.

No doubt he has his little cares,
And very hard he often fares,
The which so patiently he bears,
That, listening to those cheerful airs,
Who knows but he may be

In want of his next meal of seeds?
I think for that his sweet song pleads.
If so, his pretty art succeeds.
I'll scatter there among the weeds
All the small crumbs I see.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 19, 2023

30 sec read
368

Quick analysis:

Scheme AAAAB CCCCB DDDDB
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 479
Words 98
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 5, 5, 5

Charles Lamb

Charles Lamb was an English essayist, poet, and antiquarian, best known for his Essays of Elia and for the children's book Tales from Shakespeare, co-authored with his sister, Mary Lamb (1764–1847). Friends with such literary luminaries as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey, William Wordsworth, and William Hazlitt, Lamb was at the centre of a major literary circle in England. He has been referred to by E. V. Lucas, his principal biographer, as "the most lovable figure in English literature". more…

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