Tabb Centenary Year XXXVI

Five poems by Rev. John B. Tabb.

A Query

Was it the dawn that waked the bird
   With yonder spark?
Or had the sleeping darkness stirred
   Before the Lark?

For either rival to declare
   The winds are loth;
And blossoms, nodding everywhere,
   Affirm for both.

April 1893 (p. 73, Nature: Day and Night)

The Duet

A little yellow bird above,
A little yellow flower below;
The little bird can sing the love
That bird and blossom know;
The blossom has no song nor wing,
But breathes the love he cannot sing.

1899 (p. 45, Nature: Birds)

God

I see Thee in the distant blue;
But in the violet’s dell of dew,
Behold, I breathe and touch Thee too.

March 1895 (p. 218, Religion: Doctrine)

The Bluebird

When God had made a host of them,
One little flower still lacked a stem
   To hold its blossom blue;
So into it He breathed a song,
And suddenly, with petals strong
   As wings, away it flew.

1899 (p. 46, Nature: Birds)

Discrepancy

One dream the bird and blossom dreamed
   Of love the whole night long;
Yet twain its revelation seemed,
   In fragrance and in song.

April 1893 (p. 359, Quatrains: Miscellaneous)

[“A Query”: larks are songbirds; only one, the Horned Lark, lives in North America. “God”: violets are widely distributed flowering plants; this was the first poem of Father Tabb’s that I ever read. “The Bluebird”: bluebirds are songbirds belonging to the Thrush family; one species, the Eastern Bluebird, lives year-round in Virginia, where Father Tabb resided.]

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Sun. 06/14/09 06:19:48 PM
Categorized as Father Tabb Centenary Year & Literary.