{
 "id": "voltairine-de-cleyre/the-feast-of-vultures",
 "title": "The Feast of Vultures",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Voltairine de Cleyre",
 "poet_slug": "voltairine-de-cleyre",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Selected Works of Voltairine de Cleyre",
 "book_slug": "selected-works",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 21,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1914,
  "venue": "Selected Works of Voltairine de Cleyre (1914)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/selectedworksvo01havegoog",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43098"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
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  "repo": "standardebooks/voltairine-de-cleyre_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43098",
   "https://archive.org/details/selectedworksvo01havegoog",
   "https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/voltairine-de-cleyre-collected-poems",
   "https://www.google.com/books/edition/Free_Thought_Magazine/KNOMrVNM4CgC",
   "https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Open_Court/711CAQAAMAAJ",
   "https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Open_Court/6qzQAAAAMAAJ",
   "https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Worm_Turns/wslHAQAAMAAJ",
   "https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/voltairine-de-cleyre-a-new-hope",
   "https://archive.org/details/BostonInvestigator_1893-03-15"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 84,
  "n_stanzas": 6,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 52,
  "max_indent": 3
 },
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "A moan in the gloam in the air-peaks heard⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Bird of Omen⁠—the wild, fierce Bird,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Aflight",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "In the night,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Like a whizz of light,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Arrowy winging before the storm,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Far away flinging,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "The whistling, singing,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "White-curdled drops, wind-blown and warm,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "From its beating, flapping,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Thunderous wings;",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Crashing and clapping",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "The split night swings,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "And rocks and totters,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Bled of its levin,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "And reels and mutters",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "A curse to Heaven!",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Reels and mutters and rolls and dies,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With a wild light streaking its black, blind eyes.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Far, far, far,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Through the red, mad morn,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Like a hurtling star,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Through the air upborne,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "The Herald-Singer,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "The Terror-Bringer,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Speeds⁠—and behind, through the cloud-rags torn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gather and wheel a million wings,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Clanging as iron where the hammer rings;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The whipped sky shivers,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "The White Gate shakes,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "The ripped throne quivers,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "The dumb God wakes,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "And feels in his heart the talon-stings⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The dead bodies hurled from beaks for slings.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Ruin! Ruin!” the Whirlwind cries,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And it leaps at his throat and tears his eyes;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“Death for death, as ye long have dealt;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The heads of your victims your heads shall pelt;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The blood ye wrung to get drunk upon,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Drink, and be poisoned! On, Herald, on!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Behold, behold,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "How a moan is grown!",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "A cry hurled high ’gainst a scaffold’s joist!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The Voice of Defiance⁠—the loud, wild Voice!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whirled",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Through the world,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "A smoke-wreath curled",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "(Breath ’round hot kisses) around a fire!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "See! the ground hisses",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "With curses, and glisses",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "With red-streaming blood-clots of long-frozen ire,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Waked by the flying",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Wild voice as it passes;",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Groaning and crying,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "The surge of the masses",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Rolls and flashes",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "With thunderous roar⁠—",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Seams and lashes",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "The livid shore⁠—",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Seams and lashes and crunches and beats,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And drags a ragged wall to its howling retreats!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Swift, swift, swift,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "’Thwart the blood-rain’s fall,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Through the fire-shot rift",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Of the broken wall,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "The prophet-crying",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "The storm-strong sighing,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Flies⁠—and from under Night’s lifted pall,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Swarming, menace ten million darts,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Uplifting fragments of human shards!",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ah, white teeth chatter,",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "And dumb jaws fall,",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "While winged fires scatter",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Till gloom gulfs all",
    "indent": 3
   },
   {
    "text": "Save the boom of the cannon that storm the forts",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That the people bombard with their comrades’ hearts;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "“Vengeance! Vengeance!” the voices scream,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the vulture pinions whirl and stream!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "“Knife for knife, as ye long have dealt;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The edge ye whetted for us be felt,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ye chopper of necks, on your own, your own!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Bare it, Coward! On, Prophet, on!”",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Behold how high",
    "indent": 2
   },
   {
    "text": "Rolls a prison cry!",
    "indent": 2
   }
  ]
 ]
}