The Complete Poetical Works of Shelley including materials never before printed in any edition of the poems Edited with textual notes by Thomas Hutchinson |
SIMILES FOR TWO POLITICAL CHARACTERS OF 1819 |
The Complete Poetical Works of Shelley including materials never before printed in any edition of the poems | ||
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SIMILES FOR TWO POLITICAL CHARACTERS OF 1819
I
As from an ancestral oakTwo empty ravens sound their clarion,
Yell by yell, and croak by croak,
When they scent the noonday smoke
Of fresh human carrion:—
II
As two gibbering night-birds flitFrom 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:—
III
As a shark and dog-fish waitUnder an Atlantic isle,
For the negro-ship, whose freight
Is the theme of their debate,
Wrinkling their red gills the while—
IV
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.
The Complete Poetical Works of Shelley including materials never before printed in any edition of the poems | ||