The Raven Chides Its Own Blackness

About this poem

Warped in irony: Though not expressively verbatim, the phrase “the raven chides its own blackness” was employed by William Shakespeare, the bard of Avon, in an offhand indirect manner, in the play of “Troilus and Cressida,” as a signal of hypocrisy of the highest form. This poem invites us, as a human race of Homo sapiens, to examine critically the public persona we carry, and along with it the projections we often cast on others and on other societies when we chide their own personas, public or private. To intensify self-examination and reflection, this poem is written in the form of an inclusio, with the first and last stanzas of the poem echoing the core message of hypocrisy that the poem conveys satirically, with the proverbial raven chiding its own blackness that it projects on others. more »