ROBERT Frost encounters, but not succumbs to, the magic of birdsong in the New England gloaming.

COME IN

As I came to the edge of the woods,

Thrush music - hark!

Now if it was dusk outside,

Inside it was dark.

Too dark in the woods for a bird

By sleight of wing

To better its perch for the night,

Though it still could sing.

The last of the light of the sun

That had died in the west

Still lived for one song more

In a thrush's breast.

Far in the pillared dark

Thrush music went -

Almost like a call to come in

To the dark and lament.

But no, I was out for the stars:

I would not come in.

I meant not even if asked,

And I hadn't been.