The Birds

The Birds


I had eight birds hatched in one nest (154)

The scene … lies in a colony in America called Surinam, (186)

Beside the waters of the Hudson (359)

My numbers they admired, but me they scorned (235)

I feel very differently at the approach of spring (318)

How many are the solitary hours I spend,

 Ruminating upon the past,

Anticipating the future (319)

If birds could weep,

then would my tears

Let others know what are my fears (155)

Mother had been many years (464)

Yet when I sit on rock or hill

Down-looking on the valley fair (455)

The shattered world I built

Pieces held together by seasons in child time

Emptiness left by a boom or … cry (1016)

And with Memory I was there

The first flowers of the year(458)

My mother was a Florentine,

Whose rare blue eyes were shut from seeing me (542)

“Mother, just lay your head on my lap

And see if you can’t sleep (604)

The hours slid fast-as hours will-

Clutched tight-by greedy-hands (1046)

Forced into the arms of whores (223)

A prettier bird was nowhere seen (154)

Had I not killed her she would have killed me.

She died hard. (245)

In chirping language, oft them tell,

You had a dam that loved you well. (155)

Works Cited

Adams, Abigail.  “Absolute Power over Wives”.  The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women Vol. 1. Ed. Gilbert, Sandra M. and Gubar, Susan.  New York:  W.W. Norton & Company, 2007.  319. Print.

---.  “Remember the Ladies”.  The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women Vol. 1. Ed. Gilbert, Sandra M. and Gubar, Susan.  New York:  W.W. Norton & Company, 2007.  318. Print.

Austin, Jane.  “Love and Freindship”.  The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women Vol. 1. Ed. Gilbert, Sandra M. and Gubar, Susan.  New York:  W.W. Norton & Company, 2007.  464. Print.

Behn, Aphra.  “Oroonoko, or The Royal Slave”.  The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women Vol. 1. Ed. Gilbert, Sandra M. and Gubar, Susan.  New York:  W.W. Norton & Company, 2007.  186. Print.

Bradstreet, Anne.  “In Reference to Her Children, 23 June, 1659”.  The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women Vol. 1. Ed. Gilbert, Sandra M. and Gubar, Susan.  New York:  W.W. Norton & Company, 2007.  154-155. Print.

Browning, Elizabeth Barrett.  “From Aurora Leigh”.  The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women Vol. 1. Ed. Gilbert, Sandra M. and Gubar, Susan.  New York:  W.W. Norton & Company, 2007.  542. Print.

Dickenson, Emily.  “325”.  The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women Vol. 1. Ed. Gilbert, Sandra M. and Gubar, Susan.  New York:  W.W. Norton & Company, 2007.  1046. Print.

Hurston, Zora Neale.  “How It Feels To Be Colored Me”.  The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women Vol. 2. Ed. Gilbert, Sandra M. and Gubar, Susan.  New York:  W.W. Norton & Company, 2007.  359. Print.

Killigrew, Anne.  “Upon the Saying That My Verses Were Made by Another”.  The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women Vol. 1. Ed. Gilbert, Sandra M. and Gubar, Susan.  New York:  W.W. Norton & Company, 2007.  235. Print.

Morrison, Tony.  “Unspeakable Things Unspoken”.  The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women Vol. 2. Ed. Gilbert, Sandra M. and Gubar, Susan.  New York:  W.W. Norton & Company, 2007.  1016. Print.

Stowe, Harriet Beecher.  “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”.  The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women Vol. 1. Ed. Gilbert, Sandra M. and Gubar, Susan.  New York:  W.W. Norton & Company, 2007.  604. Print.

Woolf, Virginia.  “Hyde Park Gate”.  The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women Vol. 2. Ed. Gilbert, Sandra M. and Gubar, Susan.  New York:  W.W. Norton & Company, 2007.  223.  Print.

---.  “Professions for Women”.  The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women Vol. 2. Ed. Gilbert, Sandra M. and Gubar, Susan.  New York:  W.W. Norton & Company, 2007.  245.  Print.

Wordsworth, Dorothy.  “Grasmere-A Fragment”.  The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women Vol. 1. Ed. Gilbert, Sandra M. and Gubar, Susan.  New York:  W.W. Norton & Company, 2007.  455. Print.

---. “Thoughts on my Sick Bed”.  The Norton Anthology of Literature by Women Vol. 1. Ed. Gilbert, Sandra M. and Gubar, Susan.  New York:  W.W. Norton & Company, 2007.  458. Print.