Read "The Parrot" by Anonymous online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
The deep affections of the breast, / That Heaven to living things imparts / Are not exclusively possess'd / By human hearts.
A parrot, from the Spanish Main, / Full young, and early-caged came o'er, / With bright wings, to the bleak domain. / Of Mulla's shore.
To spicy groves where he had won / His plumage of resplendent hue- / His native fruits, and skies, and sun- / He bade adieu.
For these he changed the smoke of turf, / A heathery land and misty sky; / And turn'd on rocks and raging surf / His golden eye.
But, petted, in our climate cold, / He lived and chatter'd many a day; / Until, with age, from green and gold / His wings grew gray.
At last, when blind and seeming dumb, / He scolded, laugh'd, and spoke no more, / A Spanish stranger chanced to come / To Mulla's shore.
He hail'd the bird in Spanish speech, / The bird in Spanish speech replied; / Flapt round his cage with joyous screech, / Dropt down and died.