Old Adam, the Carrion Crow

Thomas Lovell Beddoes 1803 (Clifton, Bristol) – 1849 (Basel)



Old Adam, the carrion crow,
        The old crow of Cairo;
    He sat in the shower, and let it flow
        Under his tail and over his crest;
          And through every feather
          Leak'd the wet weather;
        And the bough swung under his nest;
        For his beak it was heavy with marrow.
          Is that the wind dying? O no;
         It's only two devils, that blow,
         Through a murderer's bones, to and fro,
         In the ghosts' moonshine.

    Ho! Eve, my grey carrion wife,
       When we have supped on king's marrow,
   Where shall we drink and make merry our life?
       Our nest it is queen Cleopatra's skull,
         'Tis cloven and crack'd,
         And batter'd and hack'd,
       But with tears of blue eyes it is full:
       Let us drink then, my raven of Cairo!
         Is that the wind dying? O no;
         It's only two devils, that blow
         Through a murderer's bones, to and fro,
         In the ghosts' moonshine.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 21, 2023

48 sec read
143

Quick analysis:

Scheme aaabccbaAAAD eaexffxaAAAD
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 955
Words 153
Stanzas 2
Stanza Lengths 12, 12

Thomas Lovell Beddoes

Thomas Lovell Beddoes was an English poet, dramatist and physician. more…

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