WSCTE

The Colly Birds

In the song of the Twelve Days
there are hens and geese and colly birds
as well as milkmaids and dancing men.

You must know that the colly birds
are coal-black, are blackbirds, like one
heard singing above our rooms

at the villa, one room
over the parked cars, the abandoned wagons,
above what once were stables.

Much that was holy was born there
under the merle-song of the coal-bird whose blackness
rang out with great joy

even without footmen or girls
herding lambs to the Italian barnyard,
not a child but love nevertheless,

all twelve days of our rising
to the song of the colly bird in the locust
and no small wonder in the pear tree.

            E.G. Burrows (Edmonds)
            Copyright ©

Commentary:

"Some versions of the Christmas song about the Twelve Days refer to 'four calling birds,' while others say 'four colly birds.'  I was intrigued so did some research.  The birds usually pictured with the verse are European Blackbirds (Turdus Merula), a species of thrush related to our American Robin.  The word 'colly' must mean 'black' or 'black as coal' as in 'collier' and 'colliery' derived from 'coal.'  'Calling' on the other hand, would be a misunderstanding of the original.

"I was reminded of hearing the thrush-like song of the blackbird during a visit with 'my true love' to Italy.  Oddly enough, because rooms were lacking in the main building, we stayed in a nearby carriage-house.  The situation was hardly parallel with the Nativity story, but I was amused to think of it that way.

"This was the genesis of the poem.  What began as an exercise in etymology ended as a love song.  The wonder still remains.  Why would a partridge be sitting in a pear tree?"

"The Colly Birds" was first published in Poetry Northwest and then reprinted in the chapbook The Birds Under the Earth (Owl Creek Press, 1997).

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Last updated: April 27, 1999.