POETRY
THE DOOM OF THE CITY PIGEON
(" It might be sufficient to declare them ferae natume for A apace and leave the rest to the natural hunting instinct of thu Cockney boy."—Obeerver.)
On not that way ! we have deserved of you A braver ending and a gentler doom, We, who have graced your spires and flecked the hue Of opal feathers through the Temple's gloom.
For we have comforted the city saints, And pitied Nelson's loneliness and flown On whirring wings, mottled with rainbow paints, Through all the dappled courts we thought our own.
And we have pleased your children and have wooed Our lady loves with crooning coo and bill, And brought our tiny, rosy footed brood To many a happy nursery window sill ; Oh not that way ! not that barbaric end, For we have thought each one of you a friend.
BARBARA EYSLER TODD.
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