Christina G. Rossetti.
Learning to Play
Upon a tall piano stool
I have to sit and play
A stupid finger exercise
For half an hour a day.
They call it "playing," but to me
It's not a bit of fun.
I play when I am out of doors,
Where I can jump and run.
But Mother says the little birds
Who sing so nicely now,
Had first to learn, and practice too,
All sitting on a bough.
And maybe if I practice hard,
Like them, I too, some day,
Shall make the pretty music sound;
Then I shall call it "play."
Abbie Farwell Brown.