| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900. |
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| 47. To the Mocking-Bird |
| | | By Richard Henry Wilde |
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| WINGED mimic of the woods! thou motley fool! | |
| Who shall thy gay buffoonery describe? | |
| Thine ever ready notes of ridicule | |
| Pursue thy fellows still with jest and gibe. | |
| Wit, sophist, songster, Yorick of thy tribe, | 5 |
| Thou sportive satirist of Nature’s school, | |
| To thee the palm of scoffing we ascribe, | |
| Arch-mocker and mad Abbot of Misrule! | |
| For such thou art by day—but all night long | |
| Thou pourest a soft, sweet, pensive, solemn strain, | 10 |
| As if thou didst in this thy moonlight song | |
| Like to the melancholy Jacques complain, | |
| Musing on falsehood, folly, vice, and wrong, | |
| And sighing for thy motley coat again. | |
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