CHAPTER III

THE BIRDS OF THE POETS

Poetry might be defined roughly as the most appealing manner in which a thought that touches the heart can be expressed. The connecting link between the birds and the poets is very strong. Feathered creatures have a beauty of form and motion, a sweetness of song, a defenselessness against the elements, a wonderful ability in nest-building, a faithfulness in brooding, a fearlessness in defending their young, an attachment to their frail homes, and a devotion to each other that marks them as the especial property of the poets. There is in bird-life a constant appeal to our affection and sympathy, and continual comparison is suggested between their life processes and ours. We love the birds, and whoever writes of them with a touch of the divine tenderness of poesy makes instant appeal to our hearts.

Long before exquisite thought had been harnessed and worked down to a thing of rhyme, meter, and carefully measured feet, the historians of the Bible were making the very essence of poetic expression on many subjects. On none did their particular genius soar higher than when writing of the birds, or using some of their habits or attributes in comparison with men. These poets of the dawn knew little about measuring their words into symmetrical periods and covering a page with graceful rhymes

to express a single thought. They conceived their poetic idea, and then studied to strip it of every unnecessary word, in order to present the naked thought more prominently. Our rhyming and jingling may be soothing and musical, but who in these days offers you a thought clothed in the refined utterance and with the majestic expression of the ancient poets?

The covers of the Bible are almost bursting with the most forceful poems expressed in as clear-cut utterance as was ever conceived by man. Wonderful volumes could be made of chosen examples, but in this chapter I must of necessity confine myself as closely as I can to the birds (which is an admission that I am not able to do so entirely.) I find parts that demand to be given place.

In the days when life was comparatively simple, as contrasted with the complications of modern cities, business, politics, and social usages and customs, men lived very near the earth, and so nature touched them closely and taught them largely, as is proven by the books of David and Isaiah. Every instant of comprehension of nature brought them closer in touch with the Almighty Force behind it, so that the Spirit was in every utterance they made, and poetry throbbed in their brains as blood pulsed in their hearts.

Moses could not write the books of generations, record the history of the exodus, and lay down the laws of government without here and there breaking into poetry. When this work was accomplished, in the last of Deuteronomy, he reached a culmination, and sang for the Children of Israel the songs of Moses and the Lamb. Once, "in the ears of all the assembly of Israel," Moses recited the song of "The Lord our Rock." It commences:

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Give ear, ye heavens, and I will speak;

And let the earth hear the words of my mouth:
My doctrine shall drop as the rain,

My speech shall distil as the dew;

As the small rain upon the tender grass,

And as the showers upon the herb:

For I will proclaim the name of our Lord:
Ascribe ye greatness unto our God."

With such a beginning it is easy to see how Moses, in pouring out his heart at the close of life, reached a climax of impassioned utterance in this poem that leaves it standing monumental in the literature of nations.

This thought of Moses, that he wished his teachings to refresh his people "as the small rain upon the tender grass" in the great spring rejuvenation of the whole earth, suggests the Spring Song of Solomon, but they are different. Moses described spring in comparison; Solomon celebrated the season. His song is found in that chapter

beginning with the incomparable lines:

"I am a rose of Sharon,

A lily of the valleys.

As a lily among thorns,

So is my love among the daughters.

As the apple among the trees of the wood,

So is my beloved among the sons.

I sat down under his shadow with great delight,

And His fruit was sweet to my taste.

He brought me to the banqueting house,

And His banner over me was love."

These lines appeal to me as so perfect that any attempt at improvement would be sacrilege. They prepare one for the cloud-covered heights touched constantly by the