To A Caged Greenfinch Poem by Francis Duggan

They've locked you in a cage luckless greenfinch
And put you in a state of misery
But nothing human man can do could never ever quench
The longing that is in you to be free.

You have lost your colour of leaf green
The feathers you now wear are of a dullish hue
They took you from your homeland the woodland and the screen
And made a common prisoner out of you.

You were captured by two men with powerful light
As you slept with your head tucked beneath your wing
They deprived you of your one god given right
And brought you to their residence expecting you to sing.

They feed you on the finest of bird seed
And fill your bath with clean water each morn
But all you ask of them is to be freed
And be let live where you were raised and born.

Here in your little prison cage you pine
For leafy hedgerows and the open sky
For wind and rain and beautiful sunshine
And green woods where you sang your songs of joy.

These people do not mean to be unkind
They brought you to their house to entertain
But you have left your sweet music behind
Among the laurel trees in Strawhill Lane

Yet you feel these people have done you wrong
They took from you freedom and happiness
You feel they are not worthy of your song
They who put you in a prison such as this.

But heartache it will slowly fade away
And you will lose this heartfelt sense of gloom
Your voice it will return some future day
And your sweet songs make glad your captive room.