Page 18 - Poetry-Animals

Signs of Spring

“The water-carts have begun again, a sure sign that summer is
coming.” – Little Girl’s Letter from Brighton

LITTLE GIRL, TO THE BIRDS.

Ho! swallows, that from foreign parts
Your summer tale are bringing,
Know that the Brighton water-carts
An earlier tune are singing.

Ho! cuckoos, pipe your blithest strain,
And ply your swiftest feather,
But marvel not if all in vain
You chant of bright Spring weather.

Ho! nightingales, we shall not need
Henceforth your annual story;
The water-carts, ‘tis well agreed,
Have stolen all your glory!

You signs of Spring! go play your parts
Where men will care about ye;
Our signs of Spring are water-carts
And we can do without ye.

THE BIRDS’ REPLY.

Thanks for the warning, maiden fair,
We will not haunt your city;
Have water-carts, for aught we care,
And henceforth spare your ditty.

Your carts, too—bid them spare their fears
That we shall land at Brighton;
We’ve looked in vain these thousand years
For tree or bush to light on!

—H.D. (Girl’s Own Paper, 1881)
Signs of S

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