Fifteen Acres

A tiny comedy of domestic anticipation, "Fifteen Acres" follows a feathered Everyman as he bustles through his morning routines with the anxious urgency of a father-to-be. James Stephens, the Irish poet famous for his wit, turns his keen eye to the miniature world of a bird preparing for parenthood. The poem captures the universal absurdity of impending fatherhood: the territorial anxiety, the building of nests, the endless small tasks that must be completed before the little ones arrive. Stephens writes with a gentle, affectionate mockery that never quite tips into cruelty, instead finding something deeply recognizable in a bird's worried flitting from branch to branch. The humor is dry and observational, the kind that emerges from watching the serious business creatures make of their ordinary lives. For readers who delight in verse that treats small things as worthy of grand attention, this poem offers fifteen acres of pure, wry charm.