| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900. |
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| 1557. Flight |
| | | By Madison Cawein |
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| THE SONG-BIRDS? are they flown away? | |
| The song-birds of the summer-time, | |
| That sang their souls into the day, | |
| And set the laughing days to rhyme?— | |
| No catbird scatters through the hush | 5 |
| The sparkling crystals of its song; | |
| Within the woods no hermit-thrush | |
| Trails an enchanted flute along, | |
| A sweet assertion of the hush. | |
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| All day the crows fly cawing past; | 10 |
| The acorns drop; the forests scowl; | |
| At night I hear the bitter blast | |
| Hoot with the hooting of the owl. | |
| The wild creeks freeze; the ways are strewn | |
| With leaves that rot: beneath the tree | 15 |
| The bird, that set its toil to tune, | |
| And made a home for melody, | |
| Lies dead beneath the death-white moon. | |
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