The Blue Jay
The Blue Jay
Original Text
D. H. Lawrence, Birds, Beasts and Flowers: Poems (London: Martin Secker, 1923): 150-51. PR 6023 A93B5 1923 Robarts Library
1The blue jay with a crest on his head
2Comes round the cabin in the snow.
3He runs in the snow like a bit of blue metal,
4Turning his back on everything.
5From the pine-tree that towers and hisses like a pillar of shaggy cloud
6Immense above the cabin
7Comes a strident laugh as we approach, this little black dog and I.
8So halts the little black bitch on four spread paws in the snow
9And looks up inquiringly into the pillar of cloud,
10With a tinge of misgiving.
11Ca-a-a! comes the scrape of ridicule out of the tree.
12What voice of the Lord is that, from the tree of smoke?
13Oh Bibbles, little black bitch in the snow,
14With a pinch of snow in the groove of your silly snub nose.
15What do you look at me for?
16What do you look at me for, with such misgiving?
17It's the blue jay laughing at us.
18It's the blue jay jeering at us, Bibs.
19Every day since the snow is here
20The blue jay paces round the cabin, very busy, picking up bits,
21Turning his back on us all,
22And bobbing his thick dark crest about the snow, as if darkly saying:
23I ignore those folk who look out.
24You acid-blue metallic bird,
25You thick bird with a strong crest
26Who are you?
27Whose boss are you, with all your bully way?
28You copper-sulphate blue-bird!
Publication Start Year
1923
Publication Notes
see Roberts A27
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO 2000.
Form