Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE VAGABONDS, by EMILY PAULINE JOHNSON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE VAGABONDS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: What saw you in your flight to-day
Last Line: Ere you enter your slumber-land.
Alternate Author Name(s): Tekahionwake
Subject(s): Birds; Crows; Flight; Wandering & Wanderers; Flying; Wanderlust; Vagabonds; Tramps; Hoboes


WHAT saw you in your flight to-day,
Crows a-winging your homeward way?

Went you far in carrion quest,
Crows that worry the sunless west?

Thieves and villains, you shameless things!
Black your record as black your wings

Tell me, birds of the inky hue,
Plunderous rogues -- to-day have you

Seen with mischievous, prying eyes
Lands where earlier suns arise?

Saw you a lazy beck between
Trees that shadow its breast in green,

Teased by obstinate stones that lie
Crossing the current tauntingly?

Fields abloom on the farther side
With purpling clover lying wide,

Saw you there as you circled by,
Vale-environed a cottage lie --

Girt about with emerald bands,
Nestling down in its meadow lands?

Saw you this on your thieving raids?
Speak -- you rascally renegades.

Thieved you also away from me
Olden scenes that I long to see?

If O crows! you have flown since morn
Over the place where I was born,

Forget, will I, how black you were
Since dawn, in feather and character;

Absolve, will I, your vagrant band,
Ere you enter your slumber-land.





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