Poems (Rossetti, 1901)/Bird or Beast

by Christina Georgina Rossetti

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.