BARLOW, Joel

Advice To A Raven In Russia

Black fool, why winter here? These frozen skies,

Worn by your wings and deafen'd by your cries,

Should warn you hence, where milder suns invite,

And day alternates with his mother night.

You fear perhaps your food will fail you there,

Your human carnage, that delicious fare

That lured you hither, following still your friend

The great Napoleon to the world's bleak end.

You fear, because the southern climes pour'd forth

Their clustering nations to infest the north,

Bavarians, Austrians, those who Drink the Po

And those who skirt the Tuscan seas below,

With all Germania, Neustria, Belgia, Gaul,

Doom'd here to wade thro slaughter to their fall,

You fear he left behind no wars, to feed

His feather'd canibals and nurse the breed.

Fear not, my screamer, call your greedy train,

Sweep over Europe, hurry back to Spain,

…..
Fly then, or starve; tho all the dreadful road

From Minsk to Moskow with their bodies strow'd

May count some Myriads, yet they can't suffice

To feed you more beneath these dreary skies.

Go back, and winter in the wilds of Spain;

Feast there awhile, and in the next campaign

Rejoin your master; for you'll find him then,

With his new million of the race of men,

Clothed in his thunders, all his flags unfurl'd,

Raging and storming o'er the prostrate world.

War after war his hungry soul requires,

State after State shall sink beneath his fires,

Yet other Spains in victim smoke shall rise

And other Moskows suffocate the skies,

Each land lie reeking with its people's slain

And not a stream run bloodless to the main.

Till men resume their souls, and dare to shed

Earth's total vengeance on the monster's head,

Hurl from his blood-built throne this king of woes,

Dash him to dust, and let the world repose.