Their Lonely Betters

-->As I listened from a beach-chair in the shade To all the noises that my garden made,
It seemed to me only proper that words
Should be withheld from vegetables and birds.

A robin with no Christian name ran through
The Robin-Anthem which was all it knew,
And rustling flowers for some third party waited
To say which pairs, if any, should get mated.

Not one of them was capable of lying,
There was not one which knew that it was dying
Or could have with a rhythm or a rhyme
Assumed responsibility for time.

Let them leave language to their lonely betters
Who count some days and long for certain letters;
We, too, make noises when we laugh or weep:
Words are for those with promises to keep.

This poem is about the uniqueness of the ability of man to communicate using the human language, how it is something that is distinguished from other creatures by superiority, although this entity too, has its pros and cons. The poet knows that with this higher form of communication, comes the burden of responsibility. The poetic persona portrayed by a man sitting in a chair on a porch staring out into his garden oozes of loneliness as compared to the creatures of the garden, and thus comes about the title of the poem, "Their Lonely Betters."