The Ray; The Raven

Robert Williams Wood (1868–1955) · How to Tell the Birds from the Flowers and Other Woodcuts · 1917

I always sing the hymn of hate,
When I perceive the Ray (or skate)
His ugly mouth I can’t abide,
His eyes are on the other side,
His features are all out of place
He hasn’t even any face.
I do not mind the Raven, though
Maligned by Edgar Allan Poe:
By his fun‑er‑ial array
We recognize him from the Ray,
Whose epiderm is white as snow,
Not black as night, like Mr. Crow.
Though black, morose, and quite unshaven
I’m sure we all prefer the Raven.

Where this text comes from

First published in How to Tell the Birds from the Flowers and Other Woodcuts (1917). First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established. [1]

Structure read from the source's markup; the words have not been compared against a page scan. Last checked 2026-08-20.

Taken from Standard Ebooks, standardebooks/robert-williams-wood_how-to-tell-the-birds-from-the-flowers-and-other-woodcuts, how-to-tell-the-birds-from-the-flowers.xhtml. Rights: public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931).

Earlier sources (3)

This poem as JSON or plain text. Line anchors #L1–#L14.

Cite this poem

Robert Williams Wood (1868–1955). “The Ray; The Raven.” First published in How to Tell the Birds from the Flowers and Other Woodcuts (1917). Text: Poem Index, https://poemindex.org/robert-williams-wood/the-ray-the-raven/. Append #L14 to cite line 14, or #L4-L9 for lines 4–9.

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