Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889
Why the Robins Breast was Red
By James Ryder Randall (18391908)T
And from the agonizing wreath ran many a crimson rill;
The cruel Roman thrust him on with unrelenting hand,
Till, staggering slowly ’mid the crowd, He fell upon the sand.
Flitted around and strove to wrench one single thorn away;
The cruel spike impaled his breast,—and thus, ’tis sweetly said,
The Robin has his silver vest incarnadined with red.
Reveal the lesson taught by this winged Ishmael of the skies.
I, in the palace of delight or cavern of despair,
Have plucked no thorns from thy dear brow, but planted thousands there!