Skip to content
Linespedia

Robin's Mistake

Topics: classic

What do you think Red Robin     Found by a mow of hay?     Why, a flask brimful of liquor,     That the mowers brought that day     To slake their thirst in the hayfield.     And Robin he shook his head:     "Now I wonder what they call it,     And how it tastes?" he said.     "I have seen the mowers drink it -     Why isn't it good for me?     So I'll just draw out the stopper     And get at the stuff, and see!"     But alas! for the curious Robin,     One draught, and he burned his throat     From his bill to his poor crop's lining,     And he could not utter a note.     And his head grew light and dizzy,     And he staggered left and right,     Tipped over the flask of brandy,     And spilled it, every mite.     But after awhile he sobered,     And quietly flew away,     And he never has tasted liquor,     Or touched it, since that day.     But I heard him say to his kindred,     In the course of a friendly chat,     "These men think they are above us,     Yet they drink such stuff as that!     Oh, the poor degraded creatures!     I am glad I am only a bird!"     Then he flew up over the meadow,     And that was all I heard.

AI analysis available. Enable JavaScript to interact.

About this line

"What do you think Red Robin..."

Ella Wheeler Wilcox's contribution to classic is further solidified by the brilliance found in "Robin's Mistake"... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

Classified Tags

Related lines

"Luck is the tuning of our inmost thought          To chord with God's great plan.         That done, ah! know,     Thy silent wishes to results"

"I stand in the blaze of the candle rays,          While my merry maidens three     Arrange each tress, and loop my dress,          And render m"

"I held the golden vessel of my soul     And prayed that God would fill it from on high.     Day after day the importuning cry     Grew stronger"

"How happy they are, in all seeming,          How gay, or how smilingly proud,     How brightly their faces are beaming,          These people"

"Here morning in the ploughman's songs is met     Ere yet one footstep shows in all the sky,     And twilight in the east, a doubt as yet,     S"

"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Continue Reading

"Luck is the tuning of our inmost thought          ..."

Weekly Poetic Insight

Join our literary Sanctuary

Get the most inspiring lines, poetic analysis, and secret shayaris delivered to your inbox every Sunday.