Percy Bysshe Shelley - Similes For Two Political Characters Of 1819 lyrics

[Published by Medwin, "The Athenaeum", August 25, 1832; reprinted by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839. Our title is that of 1839, 2nd edition. The poem is found amongst the Harvard man*scripts, headed "To S—th and O—gh".] 1. As from an ancestral oak Two empty ravens sound their clarion, Yell by yell, and croak by croak, When they scent the noonday smoke Of fresh human carrion:— 2. As two gibbering night-birds flit From their bowers of deadly yew Through the night to frighten it, When the moon is in a fit, And the stars are none, or few:— 3. As a shark and dog-fish wait Under an Atlantic isle, For the negro-ship, whose freight Is the theme of their debate, Wrinkling their red gills the while— 4. Are ye, two vultures sick for battle, Two scorpions under one wet stone, Two bloodless wolves whose dry throats rattle, Two crows perched on the murrained cattle, Two vipers tangled into one.