Poetry

Voliere Fantastique

Sirens MAIDENS and seabirds, lovelier

Than Aphrodite's self they were, Whose song lured even Orpheus.

Only Ulysses on his mast,

Hearing them, seemed to scorn—and passed.

They dived to death, shamed, amorous.

Scarecrow His fortress is a wide domain In happy summer fields of grain That winged black robbers try to storm.

He routs them from his citadel Who is a faithful sentinel Despite his ragged uniform.

Roe Observe the giant cormorants That feed their young_ on elephants And look like storm clouds in the sky.

Their eggs resemble Mosques—ah well !— • Such are the yarns that Sailors And it is known they never lie.

Raven

•

Corvus, a croaking_ ebon bird, Told to Apollo all he heard, And thus became his messenger.

Though evil-omened and despised He is in stars immortalized: So the astronomers aver.

Harpies These women-birds of Zeus were fair, With gleaming wings and flowing hair, That suddenly to earth would come And through the tempests swoop and whirr.

They captured souls for Jupiter And bore them to Elysium..

Halcyon Behold the happy halcyon

That confidently broods upon December's grim uncertain wave I. Her faith is paid with seas of glass As far and high the tempests pass, For rainbows shine above the brave, - WmTE SPENCER.