"Never stoops the soaring vulture On his quarry in the desert, ... But another vulture, watching ... Sees the downward plunge, and follows; And a third pursues the second, ... Till the air is dark with pinions.So disasters come not singly; But as if they watched and waited, Scanning one another’s motions, When the first descends, the others Follow, follow, gathering flock-wise Round their victim, sick and wounded, First a shadow, then a sorrow, Till the air is dark with anguish."