All on a misty afternoon
When Winter mimicked Spring,
I heard a silly little bird
A-practising to sing.
He tilted on a naked thorn
And teased his trembling throat;
Now piping high, now fluting low,
To try each liquid note.
I staid awhile and heard with glee
His sweet untimely tune.
"The Spring's not here, you foolish dear!
You're far — oh, far too soon!
'Tis only February now,
My stars, you'd think 'twas June!"
He scanned me with a beady eye;
I thought he fain would say:
"This is a tiny piece of Spring
That chanced to go astray.
A herald that the joyous days
Are sweetly drawing near;
'Tis time to sing the old songs o'er
To wake the woodland's ear."
A pleasant thot — that poet — bird,
That tiny, minstrel thing
Adrift upon the wintry wind,
And practising for Spring.
—Garesche
Southeastern United States. Breeds in Carolinian and Lower Austral zone from central Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania (sparingly) and New Jersey, south to southeastern Louisiana, Gulf coast and northern Florida.