The Feather/Jenny Wren/Missel Thrush [DE LA MARE poems set to music]
Channel: tobydarling
Date: 2021-12-21

The Feather (Walter de la Mare)

E A
A feather, a feather! -
F#m Bm
I wonder whether
D A
Of Wren? Or Sparrow?
C#7
Or poor Cock Robin,
Em Bm Em
Shot with an arrow?

Gmaj7 Fmaj7 
A learned man
D#maj7 Dm7
Would tell me whether
Am7 Dm7 
This airy scrap
Am7 Em 
Of down - this feather,
Gmaj7 Fmaj7 
Was of wren, or Sparrow - 
D#maj7 Dm7
From thorn or willow,
Am7 Dm7
Ivy or gorse,
Am7 Dm7
Or grey-leafed sallow - 
D A C#7
Or poor Cock Robin's,
Em Am Em
Shot with an arrow.

The beak nibs in,
A wind-puff blows,
Off and away
The morsel goes,
Tiny, delicate,
Downy, narrow,
Preened and sleek-
The dainty fellow!

So I can't help asking,
Wren, or Sparrow?
Or - it would fill
My hear5t with sorrow-
Poor Cock Robin's,
Slain with an arrow?

Jenny Wren

D1 D2
That farthing bird, J. Wren,
Am7 D1
The cruel boys pursue;
B7 G
Hunt her with sticks and stones
F Am
Hedge and green-coppice through.

A farthing bird, Amen.
Ay, two brown sparrows can
For as easy a sum be bought
By heedless chaffering man.

G Am
Yet not for all earthbound gold,
G Am
Or argosies under the sea,
B7 G
Can one moment's pity of pitiful child
F Am
Be marketed for, perdie

D1: xx0760
D2: xx0560
B7: x2120x


Missel Thrush

F#m
When from the brittle ice the fields
F#m
Begin to spring with green,
B7
Then sits the storm-cock tree-top high,
G#
And shrills the blast between.

And when the sun, with thinning ray,
Tells winter's drawing nigh,
Still, this wild bird, of valiant heart,
Shouts wild against the sky.






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