Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Ten of the best songbirds in poetry

At the Guardian John Mullan named ten of the best songbirds in poetry.

One songbird on the list:
Sterne's starling

On his visit to Paris in A Sentimental Journey, Yorick is musing on French tyranny when he hears a starling in a cage, not singing but complaining. "'I can't get out – I can't get out,' said the starling". Yorick tries unsuccessfully to release the bird. "I vow I never had my affections more tenderly awakened; nor do I remember an incident in my life, where the dissipated spirits, to which my reason had been a bubble, were so suddenly call'd home".
Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue