Robert Stephen Hawker (Роберт Хоукер)

A Croon on Hennacliff

THUS said the rushing raven
  Unto his hungry mate,—
“Ho! gossip! for Bude Haven:
  There be corpses six or eight.
Cawk! cawk! the crew and skipper
  Are wallowing in the sea:
So there ’s a savory supper
  For my old dame and me.”

“Cawk! gaffer! thou art dreaming,
  The shore hath wreckers bold;	
Would rend the yelling seamen,
  From the clutching billows hold.
Cawk! cawk! they ’d bound for booty
  Into the dragon’s den:
And shout, for ‘death or duty,’	
  If the prey were drowning men.”

Loud laughed the listening surges
  At the guess our grandame gave:
You might call them Boanerges,
  From the thunder of their wave.
And mockery followed after
  The sea-bird’s jeering brood:
That filled the skies with laughter,
  From Lundy Light to Bude.

“Cawk! cawk!” then said the raven,
  “I am fourscore years and ten,
Yet never in Bude Haven
  Did I croak for rescued men.—
They will save the captain’s girdle,
  And shirt, if shirt there be;
But leave their blood to curdle
  For my old dame and me.”

So said the rushing raven
  Unto his hungry mate,—
“Ho! gossip! for Bude Haven:
  There be corpses six or eight.
Cawk! cawk! the crew and skipper
  Are wallowing in the sea:
O, what a savory supper
  For my old dame and me.”

1. The Silent Tower of Bottreau
2. The Cell
3. The Scroll
4. The Well of St. John
5. The Sisters of Glen Nectan

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