I. <br />As from an ancestral oak <br />Two empty ravens sound their clarion, <br />Yell by yell, and croak by croak, <br />When they scent the noonday smoke <br />Of fresh human carrion:-- <br /> <br />II. <br />As two gibbering night-birds flit <br />From their bowers of deadly yew <br />Through the night to frighten it, <br />When the moon is in a fit, <br />And the stars are none, or few:-- <br /> <br />III. <br />As a shark and dog-fish wait <br />Under an Atlantic isle, <br />For the negro-ship, whose freight <br />Is the theme of their debate, <br />Wrinkling their red gills the while-- <br /> <br />IV. <br />Are ye, two vultures sick for battle, <br />Two scorpions under one wet stone, <br />Two bloodless wolves whose dry throats rattle, <br />Two crows perched on the murrained cattle, <br />Two vipers tangled into one.<br /><br />Percy Bysshe Shelley<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/similes-for-two-political-characters-of-1819/
