Читать книгу Come Hither: A Collection of Rhymes and Poems for the Young of All Ages - Various - Страница 133

"'Come wary one, come slender feet,

Come pretty bird and sing to me,

I have a cage of wizard wood

With perch of ebony;

Come pretty bird, there's dainty food,

There's cherry, plum, and strawberry,

In my red cage, my wizard cage,

The cage I made for thee.'

"The bird flew down, the bird flew in,

The cherries they were dried and dead,

She tied him with a silken skein

To a perch of molten lead;

And first most dire he did complain,

And next he sulky sad did fall,

Chained to his perch, his burning perch,

He would not sing at all.

"There came an elf, a silent elf,

A silver wand hung by his side,

And when that wand lay on the door,

The door did open wide.

The pretty bird with beak he tore

That silken skein, then out flew he,

From that red cage, that greedy cage,

That cage of wizardry."

Ruth Manning-Sanders

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