Tribute to Sparrows

TRIBUTE TO SPARROWS LLOYD ROBERTS I B ITTER cold and snow-gray The world beyond my window lay, . It seemed all life had crept away In desperation; When suddenly a bare branch stirred, Across the pane a brown bunch whirred, A voice in shrill defiance chirred Vituperation. Puffed wing and ruffed feather, Scoffing,'scolding all together, What cared they how cold the weather Or what betiding ! Here were troubles needing airing: Raiding, nesting, laying, pairing, Perhaps a lover's loud despairing Or cruel deriding. And I who'd heard it all before, For twice ten thousand years or more, At Babylon and Agincourt, With heedless ears, Now understood and felt the glamor Of drama welded in the clamor Of small tongues tripping like a hammer Throughout the years. TRIBUTE TO SPARROWS II You boastful brown belligerent Iittle brat, Despised by man but prized by every cat, How oft you've wiped your bill on Pharaoh's hat, Arid left a trace of whiting on the face Of every god and devil where you've sat; How many times have mated While Demosthenes orated, While Socrates debated, While Cleopatra f~ted, While the twelve apostles waited For Christ to break the bread in Simon's place! How often, being sparrow, you've made sport In Solomon's or Alexander's court, Insolently careless of the sort Of donkeys, kings and other braying things That toiled and moiled around you in an art, So long as from with-under All this bickering and blunder, This inconsequential thunder, Came the plenitude of plunder, And of course you never wonder At the scattering of largess nature flings. At Cannae, Crecy, Austerlitz, Cambrai, Before the broken bastions where we lay, You wrangled fiercely in an iron spray Over a crust of bread-among the dead, In your own sweet inimitable way; Being just the same to you Whether Cross or Crescent slew, Whether ball or arrow flew, 311 THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO QUARTERLY For the immemorial stew Rising still between you two Was who should fill his belly with the bread. The -universe is yours By dispossession, And long as it endures Must make concession III To such small prying plagues Ubiquitaus; And while we shy a stone, Ignore, denounce, condone, You'll perch on every throne, A yap on yellow legs, Iniquitous. And though not beautiful As man counts beauty, Nor over dutiful As we count duty, Your vices large of size, Your virtues few, Forever down the ages, Kings, soldiers, serfs and sages, Priests, poets, peasants, pages, Will lift their tired eyes At squawk of you. IV What matter if the pageantry of time Gives no great place to sparrows' peccadillos! 312 TRIBUTE TO SPARROWS Heroes can not be made by minstrel's rhyme, Nor armorplate make men of armadillos. Despised you may be by the worldly great, Ignored by poets seeking inspiration, Lovers will call on nightingales or fate To give to passion vocal explication; Castles have doyes to hover round their towers, Chimneys have storks to bring fertility, Gardens have peacocks strutting through the flowers And snow-white swans to gild gent;~lity; And yet immortal Sappho softly sings Of Aphrodite borne by lovely legions Of fluttering sparrows clouding with their wings The flowery meadows of terrestrial regions. Buddha and Brahma earnestly implored Patience for sparrows scratching in the stalls, And Jesus himself bears witness that the Lord Is quick to mark each sparrow as it falls. v o mountebank in garb of black a,nd tan! o gutter-snipe and mendicant of dung! o vagabond ofdump and garbage-can! There never was born a bird of braver tongue. This you may boast a~idst your teapot violence, Viewing the world and everything that's in it, Never were you reduced to sulky silence Nor quelled your quarrels for one single minute. THE UNIVERSI~Y OF TORONTO QUARTERLY In the beginning you watched the Lord creating, And cocked your tail with all a sparrow's scorn; No doubt the end will find you still berating) Drowning the fiery blasts of Gabriel's horn. 314 ...