Tag: birds

A Poem, and Thoughts on Poetry

Spring is sprung,

The grass is ris.

I wonder where the birds all is.

They say the birds is on the wing.

But that’s absurd,

The wing’s on the bird.

Comic doggerel sometimes attributed to Spike Milligan, though the actual author is most likely Anonymous.

This is one of the first poems I ever learned, and once I learned it I especially liked saying the word “absurd.” I liked it much more than the stuffy old poems in my first poetry book, Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses. Blech. 

A Poem, and Thoughts on Poetry

Spring is sprung,

The grass is ris.

I wonder where the birds all is.

They say the birds is on the wing.

But that’s absurd,

The wing’s on the bird.

Comic doggerel sometimes attributed to Spike Milligan, though the actual author is most likely Anonymous.

This is one of the first poems I ever learned, and once I learned it I especially liked saying the word “absurd.” I liked it much more than the stuffy old poems in my first poetry book, Robert Louis Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses. Blech. 

Red-winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus), in Portsmouth, Virginia. This small urban flock was spooked by a street sweeper, and flew off.

Please click the photo for an enlarged view.

Bonus etymology: The Latinized genus name Agelaius means “gregarious;” phoeniceus means “deep red." 

Red-winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus), in Portsmouth, Virginia. This small urban flock was spooked by a street sweeper, and flew off.

Please click the photo for an enlarged view.

Bonus etymology: The Latinized genus name Agelaius means “gregarious;” phoeniceus means “deep red."