The Red-Winged Blackbird

 

And the night is tenderly black,

The morning eagerly bright,

For that old, old Spring is blossoming

In the soul and in the sight;

Red-Winged Blackbird*

Photograph courtesy/Dream Bird Studio

The red-winged blackbird brings

My lost youth back to me

When I hear in the swale,

From a grey fence rail,

O-ke-lee!  O-ke-lee!  O-ke-lee!

"The Red-Winged Blackbird"
Ethelwyn Wetherald
(1857-1940)
Canadian poetess and journalist

*The Red-Winged Blackbird is a passerine bird of the Icteridae and can be found
   in much of North America and is also common to parts of Central America.
This colorful little bird is often called the true "Harbinger of Spring".