WHAT saw you in your flight to-day, Crows a-winging your homeward way? Went you far in carrion quest, Crows that worry the sunless west? Thieves and villains, you shameless things! Black your record as black your wings Tell me, birds of the inky hue, Plunderous rogues -- to-day have you Seen with mischievous, prying eyes Lands where earlier suns arise? Saw you a lazy beck between Trees that shadow its breast in green, Teased by obstinate stones that lie Crossing the current tauntingly? Fields abloom on the farther side With purpling clover lying wide, Saw you there as you circled by, Vale-environed a cottage lie -- Girt about with emerald bands, Nestling down in its meadow lands? Saw you this on your thieving raids? Speak -- you rascally renegades. Thieved you also away from me Olden scenes that I long to see? If O crows! you have flown since morn Over the place where I was born, Forget, will I, how black you were Since dawn, in feather and character; Absolve, will I, your vagrant band, Ere you enter your slumber-land. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE MASK by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING HYMN OF TRUST by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES FOR THE BED AT KELMSCOTT by WILLIAM MORRIS (1834-1896) SONG OF THE SERPENT-CHARMERS by EDWIN ARNOLD THE WELCOME by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN THE WILD HORSE by MARY ANN BROWNE |