Nature

Bird or Beast?

by Christina Rossetti 1830–1894

From The Prince's Progress and Other Poems (1866)

Nature

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 dove
Were preachers sent from God.

MLA

Rossetti, Christina. “Bird or Beast?” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/rossetti_c/305/.

Chicago

Rossetti, Christina. “Bird or Beast?” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/rossetti_c/305/.

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