What saw you in your flight to-day, <br />Crows, awinging your homeward way? <br /> <br />Went you far in carrion quest, <br />Crows, that worry the sunless west? <br /> <br />Thieves and villains, you shameless things! <br />Black your record as black your wings. <br /> <br />Tell me, birds of the inky hue, <br />Plunderous rogues--to-day have you <br /> <br />Seen with mischievous, prying eyes <br />Lands where earlier suns arise? <br /> <br />Saw you a lazy beck between <br />Trees that shadow its breast in green, <br /> <br />Teased by obstinate stones that lie <br />Crossing the current tauntingly? <br /> <br />Fields abloom on the farther side <br />With purpling clover lying wide-- <br /> <br />Saw you there as you circled by, <br />Vale-environed a cottage lie, <br /> <br />Girt about with emerald bands, <br />Nestling down in its meadow lands? <br /> <br />Saw you this on your thieving raids? <br />Speak--you rascally renegades! <br /> <br />Thieved you also away from me <br />Olden scenes that I long to see? <br /> <br />If, O! crows, you have flown since morn <br />Over the place where I was born, <br /> <br />Forget will I, how black you were <br />Since dawn, in feather and character; <br /> <br />Absolve will I, your vagrant band <br />Ere you enter your slumberland.<br /><br />Emily Pauline Johnson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-vagabonds-2/
