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Christina Rossetti: Poems

Bird Or Beast?


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 10

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 dove

Were preachers sent from God. 20