Revenge was sweet, its work was complete, The dead and I were alone.
I plunged my beak in the marbling cheek,
I perch'd on the clammy brow;
And a dainty treat was that fresh meat
To the greedy Carrion Crow.
I have follow'd the traveller dragging on
O'er the mountains long and cold;
For I knew at last he must sink in the blast,
Though spirit was never so bold.
I hover'd close-his limbs grew stark,
His life-stream stood to congeal;
And I whetted my claw, for I plainly saw
I should soon have another meal.
He fell, and slept like a fair young bride,
In his winding-sheet of snow;
And quickly his breast had a table guest
In the hungry Carrion Crow.
If my pinions ache in the journey I take,
No resting-place will do,
Till I light alone on a churchyard stone,
Or a branch of the gloomy yew.
Famine and plague bring joy to me,
For I love the harvest they yield;
And the fairest sight I ever see
Is the crimson battle-field.
Far and wide is my charnel range,
And rich carousal I keep,
Till back I come to my gibbet home,
To be merrily rock'd to sleep.
When the world shall be spread with tombless
And darkness shroud all below,
What triumph and glee to the last will be
For the sateless Carrion Crow!
THE WILD DUCK AND HER BROOD.
How calm that little lake! no breath of wind
Sighs through the reeds; a clear abyss it seems,
Held in the concave of the inverted sky,—
In which is seen the rook's dull flagging wing
Move o'er the silvery clouds. How peaceful sails
Yon little fleet, the Wild Duck and her brood!
Fearless of harm, they row their easy way;
The water-lily, 'neath the plumy prows,
Dips, re-appearing in their dimpled track.
Yet, even amid that scene of peace, the noise
Of war, unequal, dastard war, intrudes.
Yon revel rout of men, and boys, and dogs,
Boisterous approach; the spaniel dashes in ;
Quick he descries the prey; and faster swims,
And eager barks; the harmless flock, dismay'd,
Hasten to gain the thickest grove of reeds,
All but the parent pair; they, floating, wait
To lure the foe, and lead him from their young;
But soon themselves are forced to seek the shore.
Vain then the buoyant wing; the leaden storm
Arrests their flight; they fluttering, bleeding fall,
And tinge the troubled bosom of the lake.
AWAKE ere the morning dawn-Skylark, arise !
The last of the stars hath waned dim in the skies;
The peak of the mountain is purpled in light,
And the grass with the night-dew is diamonded
The young flowers, at morning's call, open their
Then up ere the break of day, Skylark, arise!
Earth starts like a sluggard half-roused from a
Pale and ghost-like the mist floats away from the stream,
And the cataract hoarsely that all the night long Pour'd forth to the desolate darkness its song, Now softens to music, as brighten the skies ;Then up ere the dawn of day, Skylark, arise.
Arise from the clover, and up to the cloud,
Ere the sun leaves his chamber, in majesty proud,
And, ere his light lowers to earth's meaner things,
Catch the starless effulgence of heaven on thy
wings,
While thy gaze, as thou soarest and singest, shall feast
On the innermost shrine of the uttermost east.
Up, up with a loud voice of singing the bee Will be out to the bloom, and the bird to the
The trout to the pool, and the par to the rill,
The flock to the plain, and the deer to the hill—
Soon the marsh will resound to the plovers' lone
Then up ere the dawn of day, Skylark, arise!
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