The Whooping Crane

At sunset from the shadowed sedge Of lonely lake, among the reeds, He lifts his brazen-throated call, And the listening cat with teeth at edge With famine hears and heeds.

"Come one, come all, come all, come all!" Is the bird's challenge bravely blown To every beast the woodlands own.

"My legs are long, my wings are strong, I wait the answer to my threat." Echoing, fearless, triumphant, the cry Disperses through the world, and yet Only the clamorous, cloudless sky And the wooded mountains make reply.