The Blackbird

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1. The espaliers and the standards all
2. Are thine; the range of lawn and park:
3. The unnetted black-hearts ripen dark,
4. All thine, against the garden wall.
5.  
6. Yet, tho' I spared thee all the spring,
7. Thy sole delight is, sitting still,
8. With that gold dagger of thy bill
9. To fret the summer jenneting.
10.  
11. A golden bill! the silver tongue,
12. Cold February loved, is dry:
13. Plenty corrupts the melody
14. That made thee famous once, when young:
15.  
16. And in the sultry garden-squares,
17. Now thy flute-notes are changed to coarse,
18. I hear thee not at all, or hoarse
19. As when a hawker hawks his wares.
20.  
21. Take warning! he that will not sing
22. While yon sun prospers in the blue,
23. Shall sing for want, ere leaves are new,
24. Caught in the frozen palms of Spring.