Bird of Time: I. O Bird of Time

O Bird of Time on your fruitful bough

What are the songs you sing?

Songs of the glory and gladness of life

Of poignant sorrow and passionate strife

And the lilting joy of the spring

Of hope that sows for the years unborn

And faith that dreams of a tarrying morn

The fragrant peace of the twilight's breath

And the mystic silence that men call death

O Bird of Time, say where did you learn

The changing measures you sing?

In blowing forests and breaking tides

In the happy laughter of new-made brides

And the nests of the new-born spring

In the dawn that thrills to a mother's prayer

And the night that shelters a heart's despair

In the sigh of pity, the sob of hate

And the pride of a soul that has conquered fate