Of Woods and Waters: A Kentucky Outdoors Reader

Woodcock of the Ivory Beak

Woodcock of the Ivory Beak ELIZABETH MADOX ROBERTS [Note: It was said among the pioneers that in Kentuck would befound a woodcock whose beak was ofpure ivory.] Bough of the plane tree, where is the clear-beaked bird That was promised? When I walked here, now, I heard A swift cry in my own voice lifted in laughter,—absurd Mock at a crow,—crying under the low, rough word, Saying, "Where?" saying, "When?" saying, "Will it be, here, The woodcock of the ivory bill? Will it be? Where?" Old winds that blew deep chaos down through the valley, Moan-haunted, grief-tossed, shudder and shackle, rout and rally. Where? Did you toss a feather and bend a plume a cold May early Morning, when the ivory bill shone, song lifted, pearly Clear on the rose-stippled, blue-shadowed trunk of the plane tree? Oh, woodcock of the ivory beak, I came here to see. From Song in the Meadow (1940) 337 ...