Bird or Beast
Christina Rossetti
1830 to 1894
Did any bird come flying
After Adam and Eve,
When the door was shut against them
And they sat down to grieve?
I think not Eve's peacock
Splendid to see,
And I think not Adam's eagle;
But a dove may be.
Did any beast come pushing
Through the thorny hedge
Into the thorny, thistly world
Out from Eden's edge?
I think not a lion,
Though his strength is such;
But an innocent loving lamb
May have done as much.
If the dove preached from her bough
And the lamb from his sod,
The lamb and the dove
Were preachers sent from God.
Christina Rossetti's Bird or Beast
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