Meredith Monk- "Last song"

As to the jackdaw, koloios--it is mentioned in an oracle (Didot, III, 6, 281) and again by Antipater of Sidon (7, 713) who contrasts unfavourably its multitudinous aerial cawing (no unpleasant sound, to my ears) with the soft murmur of the swan; even as the legions of contemporary poets, he adds, are not worth remembering when compared with the scanty but inspired utterances of Erinna. This poem about a muse among the jackdaws may have been suggested by the Greek proverb "jackdaw among the Muses"--

Few are Erinna's lays, nor wordy are her songs,
But this her little work unto the Muse belongs.
Thus in remembrance she is held, no hidden thing,
That the black night conceals beneath its shadowy wing.

But we, the countless bards, O stranger, of today--
Our heaped-up myriads in oblivion pass away.
The low croon of the swan is better than in crowds
The jackdaws cawing far and wide through spring-time's clouds.