{
 "id": "mary-weston-fordham/to-the-mock-bird",
 "title": "To the Mock-Bird",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Mary Weston Fordham",
 "poet_slug": "mary-weston-fordham",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Magnolia Leaves",
 "book_slug": "magnolia-leaves",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 52,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1897,
  "venue": "Magnolia Leaves (1897)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/magnolialeavespo00ford"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/mary-weston-fordham_magnolia-leaves",
  "file": "magnolia-leaves.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://scalar.lehigh.edu/african-american-poetry-a-digital-anthology/mary-weston-fordham-magnolia-leaves-full-text-1897-preface-by-booker-t-washington",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006775637"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 16,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 49,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Bird of the woodland, sing me a song,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fain would I list to thee, all the day long.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Out from thy cosy nest, ’mid leafy bower,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Lift high thy tuneful voice⁠—’tis summer’s hour.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Bird of the forest, with voice sublime,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gladdening with thy music all summer time,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "E’en while the Autumn’s winds bend low the trees,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sweetly still thy carols float with the breeze.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Queen of the song-realm, what doest thou?",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Up amid the leaflets, rocking on the bough,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ah! little trickster, building thee a nest,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Cosy, soft and warm, for thy wee ones to rest.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Bird of the southland, haste thee and bring",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tributes of thy melody, welcoming the spring,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Say to sombre winter⁠—up and away,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This my time of minstrelsy, bright, sunny May.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}