As I watch'd the ploughman ploughing, Or the sower sowing in the fields, or the harvester harvesting, I saw there, too, O life and death, your analogies; (Life, life is the tillage, and Death is the harvest according.)
~ Walt Whitman, "As I Watche'd The Ploughman Ploughing,” in LEAVES OF GRASS
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For some birds, songs are learned by listening to their parents and neighbors during the first year. For other birds, songs are hardwired -- the music is scored in their brains from the beginning. For mockingbirds, singing is a lifetime of choir practice and talent shows, picking up new tunes and modifying old ones.