Ravens

"Raven, raven, your eggs are shining bright! Raven bird, your eggs are shining bright! Where do people carry off your holy eggs?"

"That Raven on yon left-hand oak (Curse on his ill-betiding croak) Bodes me no good."

"Despite all the caveats about the particular corvid or crow-like bird that may be called a "raven" (two species in North America, one in Europe, four in Africa, and three in Australia), in the public consciousness of Europe and America and in most of the extensive literature, raven refers to one species only: '. It is this species that is the primary object of comment and observations in folklore ... The raven, C. corax, occupies an extraordinary geographical and ecological range. It is circumpolar, found even above the and all the way south to the mountains of ."

"Kahgahgee, the King of Ravens, Gathered all his black marauders, Crows and blackbirds, jays and ravens, Clamorous on the dusky tree-tops."

"The Raven's house is built with reeds,— Sing woe, and alas is me! And the Raven's couch is spread with weeds, High on the hollow tree; And the Raven himself, telling his beads In penance for his past misdeeds, Upon the top I see."

"The raven once in snowy plumes was drest, White as the whitest dove's unsullied breast, Fair as the guardian of the Capitol, Soft as the swan; a large and lovely fowl His tongue, his prating tongue had changed him quite To sooty blackness from the purest white."

"Ghastly, grim, and ancient Raven, wandering from the Nightly shore,— Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore! Quoth the Raven "Nevermore!""

"And the Raven, never flitting, Still is sitting, still is sitting On the pallid bust of Pallas Just above my chamber door; And his eyes have all the seeming Of a demon's that is dreaming, And the lamplight o'er him streaming Throws his shadow on the floor, And my soul from out that shadow, That lies floating on the floor, Shall be lifted—nevermore."

"The croaking raven doth bellow for revenge."

"The raven himself is hoarse That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan Under my battlements."

"O, it comes o'er my memory, As doth the raven o'er the infected house, Boding to all."

"Did ever raven sing so like a lark, That gives sweet tidings of the sun's uprise?"

"In the centre of this grove there stood an , which, though shapely and tall on the whole, bulged out into a large excrescence about the middle of the stem. On this a pair of ravens had fixed their residence for such a series of years, that the oak was distinguished by the title of the Raven Tree. Many were the attempts of the neighbouring youths to get at this eyre: the difficulty whetted their inclinations, and each was ambitious of surmounting the arduous task. But when they arrived at the swelling, it jutted out so in their way, and was so far beyond their grasp, that the most daring lads were awed, and acknowledged the undertaking to be too hazardous. So the ravens built on, nest upon nest, in perfect security, till the fatal day arrived in which the wood was to be levelled. It was in the month of February, when those birds usually sit. The saw was applied to the but, the wedges were inserted into the opening, the woods echoed to the heavy blows of the beetle, or mallet, the tree nodded to its fall; but still the dam sat on. At last, when it gave way, the bird was flung from her nest; and, though her parental affection deserved a better fate, was whipped down by the twigs, which brought her dead to the ground."