Page:The Raven; with literary and historical commentary.djvu/122

"Parrot!" said I, "bird of evil! parrot still, or bird or devil!
By the piper who the Israelitish leader played before,
I will stand this chaff no longer! We will see now which is stronger.
Come, now, off!—Thy cage is open—free thou art, and there's the door!
Off at once, and I'll forgive thee;—take the hint, and leave my door."
But the parrot only swore.

* * * *

The last stanza reads,—

Aud the parrot never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the very self-same perch where first he sat in days of yore;
And his only occupations seem acquiring imprecations
Of the last and freshest fashion, which he picks up by the score;
Picks them up, and, with the greatest gusto, bawls them by the score,
And will swear for evermore.

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A parody of no little force, styled The Craven, was published in The Tomahawk, a satirical periodical, on the 19th of June, 1867. From The Craven, who, need it be pointed out, was Napoleon the Third, these stanzas are extracted.