Poems

<SPAN name="startofbook"></SPAN> <h1>POEMS</h1> <h3>BY</h3> <h2>SOPHIE M. ALMON.</h2> <hr /> <h2><SPAN name="CROWS" id="CROWS"></SPAN>CROWS.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i0"><span class="dropcap">T</span>HEY stream across the fading western sky<br/></span> <span class="i2a">A sable cloud, far o'er the lonely leas;<br/></span> <span class="i2">Now parting into scattered companies,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Now closing up the broken ranks, still high<br/></span> <span class="i0">And higher yet they mount, while, carelessly,<br/></span> <span class="i2">Trail slow behind, athwart the moving trees<br/></span> <span class="i2">A lingering few, 'round whom the evening breeze<br/></span> <span class="i0">Plays with sad whispered murmurs as they fly.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">A lonely figure, ghostly in the dim<br/></span> <span class="i2">And darkening twilight, lingers in the shade<br/></span> <span class="i2">Of bending willows: "Surely God has laid<br/></span> <span class="i0">His curse on me," he moans, "my strength of limb<br/></span> <span class="i2">And old heart-courage fail me, and I flee<br/></span> <span class="i2">Bowed with fell terror at this augury."<br/></span></div> </div> <hr /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />