| Augustin S. Macdonald, comp. A Collection of Verse by California Poets. 1914. | | | | The Black Vulture | | By George Sterling |
| | | ALOOF upon the day’s immeasured dome, | |
| He holds unshared the silence of the sky. | |
| Far down his bleak, relentless eyes descry | |
| The eagle’s empire and the falcon’s home— | |
| Far down, the galleons of sunset roam; | 5 |
| His hazards on the sea of morning lie; | |
| Serene, he hears the broken tempest sigh | |
| Where cold sierras gleam like scattered foam. | |
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| And least of all he holds the human swarm— | |
| Unwitting now that envious men prepare | 10 |
| To make their dream and its fulfilment one, | |
| When, poised above the caldrons of the storm, | |
| Their hearts, contemptuous of death, shall dare | |
| His roads between the thunder and the sun. | | | | |
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