Letter Vi. From The Wild Duck To The Tame Duck. (the Bird And Insects' Post-office.) Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: A B C D E F B| Dated Lincoln and Ely Fens | A |
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| DEAR COUSIN | B |
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| I suppose I must call you so though I declare I know not how we are related But though I am thought so very wild and shy I have still a kind of fellow feeling for you and if you have not gone to the spit before this comes to you I should be glad of your reply in a friendly way You know very well that you are intended to be eaten and so are we when they can catch us I understand that you never fly and that you seldom waddle above a meadow's length from your pond where you keep puddling and groping from daylight till dark This I assure you is not the life that I lead We fly together in vast numbers in the night for many miles over this flat wet country so as to water we have an inexhaustible store we may swim ourselves tired But I dare say every station of our duck lives is subject to some disadvantages and some calamities Thus with all our wildness we are not secure for we are taken sometimes by hundreds in a kind of trap which is called a decoy | C |
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| Some of our tribe have been made tame like you but I hope you are not so false hearted and then their masters feed them plentifully in a place contrived on purpose with a narrow entrance with which these traitor ducks are well acquainted so that they can pass in and out at a place we strangers should never have thought of They are sent out in the dusk of the evening when they soon join with large companies of us strangers and knowing as they do their way home and that they shall find food they set off close at each other's tails along a ditch or watercourse and we fools follow them | D |
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| The entrance as far as I could see of it is very narrow for I have been twice within a hair's breadth of being caught and do not pretend to know all about it but I wish heartily that every duck and drake in the country ay and every one of our allies the geese too could say as much could say that they had twice been on the verge of destruction by keeping bad company but had escaped | E |
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| What becomes of my companions when taken I think I have heard pretty accurately for there is somewhere a very large assemblage of fellow creatures to those who catch us and whose demand seems never to be satisfied Well never mind cousin I am determined to fly and swim too as long as I can and I advise you to do the same and make the most of your day | F |
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| Hoping to hear from you I am affectionately your wild cousin | B |
Robert Bloomfield
(1)
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About Letter Vi. From The Wild Duck To The Tame Duck. (the Bird And Insects' Post-office.)
Letter Vi. From The Wild Duck To The Tame Duck. (the Bird And Insects' Post-office.) is a poem by Robert Bloomfield. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.