The Cranes of Ibicus

Read 'The Cranes of Ibicus' by 'Emma Lazarus' and provide your summary and literary analysis in the comments section below.

The Cranes of Ibicus by Emma Lazarus

 Here was a man who watched the river flow 
Past the huge town, one gray November day.
Round him in narrow high-piled streets at play
The boys made merry as they saw him go,
Murmuring half-loud, with eyes upon the stream,
The immortal screed he held within his hand.
For he was walking in an April land
With Faust and Helen. Shadowy as a dream
Was the prose-world, the river and the town.
Wild joy possessed him; through enchanted skies
He saw the cranes of Ibycus swoop down.
He closed the page, he lifted up his eyes,
Lo--a black line of birds in wavering thread
Bore him the greetings of the deathless dead!

Form: Italian Sonnet Comments

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