<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=420668" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Common Question</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Behind us at our evening meal<br>The gray bird ate his fill,<br>Swung downward by a single claw,<br>And wiped his hooked bill.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He shook his wings and crimson tail,<br>And set his head aslant,<br>And, in his sharp, impatient way,<br>Asked, 'What does Charlie want?'</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Fie, silly bird!' I answered, 'tuck<br>Your head beneath your wing,<br>And go to sleep;'--but o'er and o'er<br>He asked the self-same thing.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then, smiling, to myself I said<br>How like are men and birds!<br>We all are saying what he says,<br>In action or in words.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The boy with whip and top and drum,<br>The girl with hoop and doll,<br>And men with lands and houses, ask<br>The question of Poor Poll.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">However full, with something more<br>We fain the bag would cram;<br>We sigh above our crowded nets<br>For fish that never swam.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">No bounty of indulgent Heaven<br>The vague desire can stay;<br>Self-love is still a Tartar mill<br>For grinding prayers alway.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The dear God hears and pities all;<br>He knoweth all our wants;<br>And what we blindly ask of Him<br>His love withholds or grants.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And so I sometimes think our prayers<br>Might well be merged in one;<br>And nest and perch and hearth and church<br>Repeat, 'Thy will be done.'</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=John+Greenleaf+Whittier">John Greenleaf Whittier</a><div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=420668" data-title="The Common Question de John Greenleaf Whittier" data-description="Behind us at our evening meal The gray bird ate his fill, Swung downward by a single claw, And wiped his hooked bill. He shook his wings and crimson tail, And set his head aslant, And, in his sharp, impatient way, Asked, 'What does Charlie want?'..."></div> </div> </div>

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