As from an ancestral oak Two empty ravens sound their clarion, Yell by yell, and croak by croak, When they scent the noonday smoke Of fresh human carrion: -- As two gibbering night-birds flit From their bowers of deadly yew Through the night to frighten it, When the moon is in a fit, And the stars are none, or few: -- As a shark and dog-fish wait Under an Atlantic isle, For the negro-ship, whose freight Is the theme of their debate, Wrinkling their red gills the while -- Are ye, two vultures sick for battle Two scorpions under one wet stone Two bloodless wolves whose dry throats rattle, Two crows perched on the murrained cattle, Two vipers tangled into one. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SPIRIT OF '76 by WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS OUTWARD BOUND by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH IN THE SHADOWS: 20 by DAVID GRAY (1838-1861) WHEN I BUY PICTURES by MARIANNE MOORE LITTLE ORPHANT ANNIE by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY EPIGRAM: 18. THE ENEMY OF LIFE by THOMAS WYATT ODE; SUNG BY THE CHILDREN OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS by W. T. ADAMS |