Poem by William Butler Yeats

The Hawk

'CALL down the hawk from the air;
Let him be hooded or caged
Till the yellow eye has grown mild,
For larder and spit are bare,
The old cook enraged,
The scullion gone wild.'
'I will not be clapped in a hood,
Nor a cage, nor alight upon wrist,
Now I have learnt to be proud
Hovering over the wood
In the broken mist
Or tumbling cloud.'
'What tumbling cloud did you cleave,
Yellow-eyed hawk of the mind,
Last evening? that I, who had sat
Dumbfounded before a knave,
Should give to my friend
A pretence of wit.' 

1. The Lamentation of the Old Pensioner
2. The Indian upon God
3. The Collar-Bone of a Hare
4. The Scholars
5. In Memory of Major Robert Gregory

Paul Hayne The Hawk ("AMBUSHED in yonder cloud of white")

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