Bird Song
Under green I have seen A girl below a linden tree
Chicory Tall as she All along a summer lane
Color clear Quick and pure And a silver-age refrain
Vidi Viridi Phyllida sub tilia.
Rolfe Humphries
SourceLicence:Public domain (US, unrenewed)
Under green I have seen A girl below a linden tree
Chicory Tall as she All along a summer lane
Color clear Quick and pure And a silver-age refrain
Vidi Viridi Phyllida sub tilia.
Bird Song is one small, bright glimpse of a summer lane. The speaker remembers seeing a girl standing beneath a linden tree, with chicory growing as tall as she is along the path. Nothing happens in the scene, and that seems to be the point: the poem simply holds a moment of color and light, described as "clear, / Quick and pure."
The feeling is delighted, a little nostalgic, and almost childlike in its simplicity. Short lines and chiming rhymes (green and seen, she and chicory) give it the sound of a snatch of tune, which fits a title like "Bird Song."
The last three lines switch into Latin. Their meaning matches the opening: "I saw, in green, Phyllis beneath the linden." The "silver-age refrain" suggests an echo of classical poetry, as if this ordinary sight were also a very old song. The English and the Latin together make the moment feel both fresh and timeless.