THE ROOK
AND
THE SPARROWS
XXIII
A little boy with crumbs of bread
Many a hungry sparrow fed.
It was a child of little sense
Who this kind bounty did dispense;
For suddenly ’twas from them torn,
And all the birds were left forlorn
In a hard time of frost and snow,
Not knowing where for food to go.
He would no longer give them bread,
Because he had observed, he said,
A great black bird, a rook by name,
That sometimes to the window came
And took away a small bird’s share.
So foolish Henry did not care
What became of the great rook
That from the little sparrows took,
Now and then, as ’twere by stealth,
A part of their abundant wealth;
Nor ever more would feed his sparrows.
Thus ignorance a kind heart narrows.
I wish I had been there, I would
Have told the child, rooks live by food
In the same way the sparrows do.
I also would have told him too
Birds act by instinct, and ne’er can
Attain the rectitude of man.
Nay, that even when distress
Does on poor human nature press,
We need not be too strict in seeing
The failings of a fellow-being.