Poems (Rossetti, 1901)/Bird or Beast

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4549468Poems — Bird or BeastChristina Georgina Rossetti

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
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.