Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE HAWK'S NEST, by FRANCIS BRET HARTE Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: We checked our pace, - the red road sharply rounding Last Line: "ain't a bad thing right here!" Alternate Author Name(s): Harte, Bret Subject(s): Birds; Hawks | ||||||||
WE checked our pace, -- the red road sharply rounding; We heard the troubled flow Of the dark olive depths of pines, resounding A thousand feet below. Above the tumult of the canon lifted, The gray hawk breathless hung; Or on the hill a winged shadow drifted Where furze and thorn-bush clung: Or where half-way the mountain side was furrowed With many a seam and scar; Or some abandoned tunnel dimly burrowed, -- A mole-hill seen so far. We looked in silence down across the distant Unfathomable reach: A silence broken by the guide's consistent And realistic speech. "Walker of Murphy's blew a hole through Peters For telling him he lied; Then up and dusted out of South Hornitos Across the long Divide. "We ran him out of Strong's, and up through Eden, And 'cross the ford below; And up this canon (Peters' brother leadin'), And me and Clark and Joe. "He fou't us game: somehow, I disremember Jest how the thing kem round; Some say 't was wadding, some a scattered ember From fires on the ground. "But in one minute all the hill below him Was just one sheet of flame; Guardin' the crest, Sam Clark and I called to him. And, -- well, the dog was game! "He made no sign: the fires of hell were round him, The pit of hell below. We sat and waited, but never found him; And then we turned to go. "And then -- you see that rock that's grown so bristly With chaparral and tan: Suthin' crep' out: it might hev been a grizzly, It might hev been a man; "Suthin' that howled, and gnashed its teeth, and shouted In smoke and dust and flame; Suthin' that sprang into the depths about it, Grizzly or man, -- but game! "That's all. Well, yes, it does look rather risky, And kinder makes one queer And dizzy looking down. A drop of whiskey Ain't a bad thing right here!" | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A SPARROW-HAWK IN THE SUBURBS by EAVAN BOLAND THE HAWK by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS THE DOUBLE-BED DREAM GALLOWS by RICHARD BRAUTIGAN THE WINDHOVER: TO CHRIST OUR LORD by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS HURT HAWKS by ROBINSON JEFFERS THE MAN-OF-WAR HAWK by HERMAN MELVILLE EVENING HAWK by ROBERT PENN WARREN HOW ARE YOU, SANITARY?' by FRANCIS BRET HARTE A NEWPORT ROMANCE by FRANCIS BRET HARTE A SECOND REVIEW OF THE GRAND ARMY [MAY 24, 1865] by FRANCIS BRET HARTE |
|