BIRD-WITTED

With innocent wide penguin eyes, three
large fledgling mocking-birds below
the pussy-willow tree,
stand in a row,
wings touching, feebly solemn,
till they see
their no longer larger
mother bringing
something which will partially
feed on of them.

Toward the high-keyed intermittent squeak
of broken-carriage springs, made by
the three similar, meek-
coated bird's-eye
freckled forms she comes; and when
from the beak
of one, the still living
beetle has dropped
out, she picks it up and puts
it in again.

What delightful note
with rapid unexpected flute-
sounds leaping from the throat
of the astute
grown bird, comes back to one from
the remote
unenergetic sun-
lit air before
the brood was here? How harsh
the bird's voice has become.
................................................

Marianne Moore
From “Bird-Witted,” 1916

From Marianne Moore, Complete Poems. New York: Macmillian Publishing Co., Inc., 1994.