The swallow leaves her nest, The soul my weary breast; But therefore let the rain On my grave Fall pure; for why complain? Since both will come again… - Thomas Lovell Beddoes

Old Adam, the carrion crow, The old crow of Cairo;
He sat in the shower, and let it flow Under his tail and over his crest; And through every feather Leak’d the wet weather; And the bough swung under his nest; For his beak it was heavy with marrow. Is that the wind dying? O no; It’s only two devils, that blow Through a murderer’s bones, to and fro, In the ghosts’ moonshine.Ho! Eve, my grey carrion wife, When we have supped on kings’ marrow,
Where shall we drink and make merry our life? Our nest it is queen Cleopatra’s skull, ’Tis cloven and crack’d, And batter’d and hack’d, But with tears of blue eyes it is full: Let us drink then, my raven of Cairo! Is that the wind dying? O no; It’s only two devils, that blow Through a murderer’s bones, to and fro, In the ghosts’ moonshine.

Squats on a toad-stool under a tree A bodiless childfull of life in the gloom,
Crying with frog voice, “What shall I be?
Poor unborn ghost, for my mother killed me Scarcely alive in her wicked womb.
What shall I be? shall I creep to the egg That’s cracking asunder yonder by Nile, And with eighteen toes, And a snuff-taking nose, Make an Egyptian crocodile?
Sing, ‘Catch a mummy by the leg And crunch him with an upper jaw, Wagging tail and clenching claw; Take a bill-full from my craw, Neighbour raven, caw, O caw, Grunt, my crocky, pretty maw!”“Swine, shall I be you? Thou’rt a dear dog; But for a smile, and kiss, and pout, I much prefer your black-lipped snout, Little, gruntless, fairy hog, Godson of the hawthorn hedge. For, when Ringwood snuffs me out, And ’gins my tender paunch to grapple, Sing, ’Twixt your ancles visage wedge, And roll up like an apple.”“Serpent Lucifer, how do you do?
Of your worms and your snakes I’d be one or two; For in this dear planet of wool and of leather
’Tis pleasant to need neither shirt, sleeve, nor shoe, And have arm, leg, and belly together. Then aches your head, or are you lazy? Sing, ‘Round your neck your belly wrap, Tail-a-top, and make your cap Any bee and daisy.”“I’ll not be a fool, like the nightingale
Who sits up all midnight without any ale, Making a noise with his nose;
Nor a camel, although ’tis a beautiful back;
Nor a duck, notwithstanding the music of quack, And the webby, mud-patting toes.
I’ll be a new bird with the head of an ass, Two pigs’ feet, two mens’ feet, and two of a hen;
Devil-winged; dragon-bellied; grave-jawed, because grass Is a beard that’s soon shaved, and grows seldom again Before it is summer; so cow all the rest; The new Dodo is finished. O! come to my nest.”

A lake
Is a river curled and asleep like a snake.