Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 4. THE JACKDAW, by EDWARD CARPENTER



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 4. THE JACKDAW, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Chork! Chork!
Last Line: Them, returning.
Subject(s): Jackdaws


CHORK! chork!
The white sea-cliff, the crawling waves, the fringe of weed between,
Midway a cleft in the rock—from above, from below unseen.

Chork! chork!
The sun alone looks in where my nest is; the moon shines in the blinking
eyes of my children.
Sweet is the warm night nestling all together, sweet the dawn by the fresh
air fanned,
Sweet to arise and soar into the blue weather—to see the brown fields
and pastures inland!

To sail inland, a dozen together, to the feeding grounds, and unearth the
fat white slugs, (chork! chork!)
To roam and range with the others—how sweet I—and yet not with
them,
Forgetting never
My own particular cleft in the rock and the tuft of sea-poppies beside
it—like yellow flames burning—
And the red wide throats of my chicks as they catch my black shadow upon
them, returning.





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