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The Unknown Bird (Edward Thomas)

from Poetry and Music 6 by Toby Darling

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lyrics

The Unknown Bird

By Edward Thomas

Em Bm Em Bm
Three lovely notes he whistled, too soft to be heard
F#m Bm
If others sang; but others never sang
F#m Em
In the great beech-wood all that May and June.
Em Bm Em Bm
No one saw him: I alone could hear him
F#m Bm
Though many listened. Was it but four years
F#
Ago? or five? He never came again.

C#m F#
Oftenest when I heard him I was alone,
C#m F#
Nor could I ever make another hear.
D A
La-la-la! he called, seeming far-off—
Bm C#m D F#m
As if a cock crowed past the edge of the world,
C#m F#m C#m F#m
As if the bird or I were in a dream.
D A
Yet that he travelled through the trees and sometimes
Bm C#m D F#m
Neared me, was plain, though somehow distant still
C#m F#m C#m F#m
He sounded. All the proof is—I told men
Em Bm Em Bm
What I had heard.

Instr: Em Bm Em Bm F#m Bm F#m Em


Em Bm
I never knew a voice,
Em Bm
Man, beast, or bird, better than this. I told
F#m Em F#m Bm
The naturalists; but neither had they heard
Em Bm
Anything like the notes that did so haunt me,
Em Bm
I had them clear by heart and have them still.
F#m Bm F#
Four years, or five, have made no difference. Then
C#m F# C#m F#
As now that La-la-la! was bodiless sweet:
D A
Sad more than joyful it was, if I must say
Bm C#m
That it was one or other, but if sad
D F#m
'Twas sad only with joy too, too far off
C#m F#m C#m F#m
For me to taste it. But I cannot tell
Em Bm Em Bm
If truly never anything but fair
C#m F# C#m F#
The days were when he sang, as now they seem.
D A
This surely I know, that I who listened then,
Bm C#m D F#m
Happy sometimes, sometimes suffering
C#m F#m C#m F#m Em Bm Em Bm
A heavy body and a heavy heart,
Em Bm Em Bm
Now straightway, if I think of it, become
F#m Bm F#
Light as that bird wandering beyond my shore.

credits

from Poetry and Music 6, released December 10, 2016

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Toby Darling image

Toby Darling Penang, Malaysia

Amateur enthusiast.
Feel free to do anything you want with these tracks, I am not interested in making money from music.

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