Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE CROWS AT WASHINGTON, by JOHN MILTON HAY Poet's Biography First Line: Slow flapping to the setting sun Last Line: Above the roofs of washington. Subject(s): Birds; Crows; Washington, D.c. | ||||||||
SLOW flapping to the setting sun By twos and threes, in wavering rows, As twilight shadows dimly close, The crows fly over Washington. Under the crimson sunset sky Virginian woodlands leafless lie, In wintry torpor bleak and dun. Through the rich vault of heaven, which shines Like a warmed opal in the sun, With wide advance in broken lines The crows fly over Washington. Over the Capitol's white dome, Across the obelisk soaring bare To prick the clouds, they travel home, Content and weary, winnowing With dusky vans the golden air, Which hints the coming of the spring, Though winter whitens Washington. The dim, deep air, the level ray Of dying sunlight on their plumes, Give them a beauty not their own; Their hoarse notes fail and faint away; A rustling murmur floating down Blends sweetly with the thickening glooms; They touch with grace the fading day, Slow flying over Washington. I stand and watch with clouded eyes These dim battalions move along; Out of the distance memory cries Of days when life and hope were strong, When love was prompt and wit was gay; Even then, at evening, as to-day, I watched, while twilight hovered dim Over Potomac's curving rim, This selfsame flight of homing crows Blotting the sunset's fading rose, Above the roofs of Washington. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...IN GEORGETOWN; HOLIDAY INN, WASHINGTON, D.C. by HAYDEN CARRUTH IN THE LOBBY OF THE WARNER THEATRE, WASHINGTON, DC by RITA DOVE COLOMBIAN JOKE by EDWARD FIELD STUDY FOR A GEOGRAPHICAL TRAIL; 3. WASHINGTON, D.C. by CLARENCE MAJOR ON A MILITARY GRAVEYARD by KENNETH REXROTH |
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