Bird Thoughts

This poem comes from How to tell stories to children by Sara Cone Bryant; the author of the poem is not known ("anonymous" is the information provided by Bryant's source).

This is not a folktale, but the little bird's exploration of its world unfolds in a very nice series from stanza to stanza.

BIRD THOUGHTS

(starling eggs)

I lived first in a little house,
And lived there very well;
I thought the world was small and round,
And made of pale blue shell.

I lived next in a little nest,
Nor needed any other;
I thought the world was made of straw,
And brooded by my mother.

One day I fluttered from the nest
To see what I could find.
I said, "The world is made of leaves;
I have been very blind."

At length I flew beyond the tree,
Quite fit for grown-up labors.
I don't know how the world is made,
And neither do my neighbors!