CHANTICLEER 229 



and blunted spurs, and its hoarse crow is a bar- 

 barous chant. 



And far away at the other end, starding in its 

 suddenness and impetuosity, was a trisyllabic 

 crow, so brief, piercing, and emphatic, that it 

 could only have proceeded from that peppery 

 uppish little bird, the bantam. And of the three 

 syllables, the last, which should be the longest, 

 was the shortest, "short and sharp like the shrill 

 swallow's cry," or perhaps even more like the 

 shrieky bark of an enraged little cur; not a 

 reveille and silvern morning song in one, as a 

 crow should be, but a challenge and a defiance, 

 wounding the sense like a spur, and suggesting 

 the bustle and fury of the cockpit. 



If this style of crowing was known to Milton, 

 it is perhaps accountable for the one bad couplet 

 in the "Allegro" : 



While the cock with lively din 

 Scatters the rear of darkness thin. 



Someone has said that every line in that in- 

 comparable poem brings at least one distinct pic- 

 ture vividly before the mind's eye. The picture 



