Poems (Rossetti, 1901)/Bird or Beast
BIRD OR BEAST?
DID any bird come flying After Adam and Eve, When the door was shut against them And they sat down to grieve?
I think not Eve's peacock Splendid to see, And I think not Adam's eagle; But a dove may be.
Did any beast come pushing Through the thorny hedge Into the thorny thistly world, Out from Eden's edge?
I think not a lion, Though his strength is such; But an innocent loving lamb May have done as much.
If the dove preached from her bough, And the lamb from his sod; The lamb and the dove Were preachers sent from God.