Poems of Nature, Poems Subjective and Reminiscent and Religious Poems, Complete

THE COMMON QUESTION.

     Behind us at our evening meal
     The gray bird ate his fill,
     Swung downward by a single claw,
     And wiped his hooked bill.

     He shook his wings and crimson tail,
     And set his head aslant,
     And, in his sharp, impatient way,
     Asked, "What does Charlie want?"

     "Fie, silly bird!" I answered, "tuck
     Your head beneath your wing,
     And go to sleep;"—but o'er and o'er
     He asked the self-same thing.

     Then, smiling, to myself I said
     How like are men and birds!
     We all are saying what he says,
     In action or in words.

     The boy with whip and top and drum,
     The girl with hoop and doll,
     And men with lands and houses, ask
     The question of Poor Poll.

     However full, with something more
     We fain the bag would cram;
     We sigh above our crowded nets
     For fish that never swam.

     No bounty of indulgent Heaven
     The vague desire can stay;
     Self-love is still a Tartar mill
     For grinding prayers alway.

     The dear God hears and pities all;
     He knoweth all our wants;
     And what we blindly ask of Him
     His love withholds or grants.

     And so I sometimes think our prayers
     Might well be merged in one;
     And nest and perch and hearth and church
     Repeat, "Thy will be done."