‘Tho’ winter winds may blow’

Tags

beggar, birds, Christmas, cold, holiday, poems, poetry, poor, poverty, rhymes, Robert Graves, snow, winter

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“Winter Birds” is a poem about caring for the least among us:

They gather at our feeder every day,
Those hungry winter birds I dearly love;
The Cardinal, the Chickadee, the Jay,
The common Sparrow and the Mourning Dove.

The poem ends with the line, “I would not turn a beggar from my door.” The British poet Robert Graves was famous for his reflections on his service in World War I, but he wrote many poems unrelated to war. On a seemingly similar theme of caring for the needy, this one, “The Shivering Beggar,” takes place on Christmas morning. If you’ve never read it, you should — it’ll surprise you.

Photo by Angela Mapes Turner

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