Who killed Cock Robin?

Gold cherry

By onemorething

Thu, 08 Apr 2021
  • 3551 reads
14 comments
 

A robin is the tyrant 

of his own small patch;

no bird sang his battle

more loudly for the fever

of Spring, inflamed for Summer.

Who killed the bully?

Under the rally of false witnesses,

a little sparrow confesses, and

unravels the administration 

of death - its wheels of rites

revealed in the careful politics

of birds - who'll bear and carry,

who'll preach, who'll dig.

But this is mourning for duty,

or with irony; all despots are buried

with relief, and which bells ring

their knell of sorrow or triumph

depends entirely upon the hearer.

I could not pretend to mourn

a brute; to say a sun has set,

winter is inevitable, when light

will only narrow without truth -

no linnet sobbed for a robin,

no rook ever read the gospel,

and I will never dispense 

the justice of a hawk

to any poor sparrow. 
 
 

The lyrics to the original or version of it are here: https://allnurseryrhymes.com/cock-robin/

Image is from here: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:TrialofSparrow_-_12.jpg

Also on Twitter: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Death_and_Burial_of_Poor_Cock_Robin_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_17060.jpg

 

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Comments

Submitted by marandina on

It all seems so brutal. A carefully crafted poem of feathered politics so well done :)

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Thanks Paul. In truth, I love robins, but it's such an interesting nursery rhyme to me, a robin is so aggressive that it's funny to see them portrayed as simply an innocent victim, also the fly as a witness - I'm not sure a fly would defend a robin! I have a book arriving today, hopefully, which is a biography of the robin - quite excited about it. Thanks for reading my little poem. :)

 

Submitted by skinner_jennifer on

Sounds like the winged version of Animal Farm. I like how you weaved a story into this poem Rachel.

Jenny.

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Thanks Jenny. The Trial of the Sparrow was written as a tale later, I think. The hawk is the judge and his sentence is to kill the sparrow himself. It's really interesting that so many nursery rhymes, and fairytales, of course, have such a dark side. Thanks for reading it. Rachel :)

 

Submitted by Ewan on

Please share or retweet this splendid re-working of an old nursery rhyme as an allegory for our times, much as many were when originally written.

Author Page at the 'Zon
 

Submitted by onemorething on

Thanks so much Ewan! :)

 

Submitted by Mark Burrow on

This is a treat. "The careful politics of birds" is a brilliant turn of phrase. Robins definitely suffer small man syndrome (random fact: think my favourite discovery while living out in the countryside has been the song thrush).

Very skilfully done. 

 

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Yes! That's it - small man syndrome! And song thrushes - beauties. Thanks for reading it, happy you liked it. :)

 

Submitted by drew_gummerson on

I hate robins. They are evil little dictators. So I enjoyed your poem. Thank you. 

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Ha. I can't bring myself to hate them! But they are thugs. Pretty thugs, though, with pretty voices. Glad you enjoyed it. :)

 

Submitted by Di_Hard on

Seems to me the sparrow in the original rhyme confessed a bit easily? Was he being leaned on or blackmailed do you think? eg "if you say you done it we'll spare your missus?" You convey the feeling of a rigged trial so your poem's ending comes as a relief :0)

 

 

Submitted by onemorething on

Definitely leaned on, or terrified into a confession. The trial of the sparrow seems very much to have been a kangaroo court - little justice for the poor sparrow. Glad I gave you a reassuring ending to the tale. Thanks for reading it. :)

 

Submitted by Insertponceyfre... on

Do you know, I've never seen a robin being aggressive - I know they are vicious, but I've never seen it. I saw some magpies murder a poor blackbird once - that was brutal : (

I love this reinterpretation of the rhyme - absolutely beautiful - and so lovely that you inspired Di to write her own version - I love it when that happens!

 

 

Submitted by onemorething on

No, I haven't either, but I suppose that is because I see them in pairs or singly on my feeders when no other birds are around. Maybe there's a reason for that, I suppose. I remember reading about an experiment where a fake robin was put in the territory of a robin and apparently it was ripped to shreds by the male robin. I'm glad you enjoyed it, I loved Di's reinvention too. :)