O Jay!

O jay -     Blue-jay!     What are you trying to say?     I remember, in the spring     You pretended you could sing;     But your voice is now still queerer,     And as yet you've come no nearer     To a song.     In fact, to sum the matter,     I never heard a flatter     Failure than your doleful clatter.     Don't you think it's wrong?     It was sweet to hear your note,     I'll not deny,     When April set pale clouds afloat     O'er the blue tides of sky,     And 'mid the wind's triumphant drums     You, in your white and azure coat,     A herald proud, came forth to cry,     "The royal summer comes!"     But now that autumn's here,     And the leaves curl up in sheer     Disgust,     And the cold rains fringe the pine,     You really must     Stop that supercilious whine - -     Or you'll be shot, by some mephitic     Angry critic.     You don't fulfill your early promise:     You're not the smartest     Kind of artist,     Any more than poor Blind Tom is.     Yet somehow, still,     There's meaning in your screaming bill.     What are you trying to say?     Sometimes your piping is delicious,     And then again it's simply vicious;     Though on the whole the varying jangle     Weaves round me an entrancing tangle     Of memories grave or joyous:     Things to weep or laugh at;     Love that lived at a hint, or     Days so sweet, they'd cloy us;     Nights I have spent with friends; -     Glistening groves of winter,     And the sound of vanished feet     That walked by the ripening wheat;     With other things.... Not the half that     Your cry familiar blends     Can I name, for it is mostly     Very ghostly; -     Such mixed-up things your voice recalls,     With its peculiar quirks and falls.     Possibly, then, your meaning, plain,     Is that your harsh and broken strain     Tallies best with a world of pain.     Well, I'll admit     There's merit in a voice that's truthful:     Yours is not honey-sweet nor youthful,     But querulously fit.     And if we cannot sing, we'll say     Something to the purpose, jay!