Explore "The Bat. (Ragweed and Fennel)" by James Whitcomb Riley on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
I. Thou dread, uncanny thing, / With fuzzy breast and leathern wing, / In mad, zigzagging flight, / Notching the dusk, and buffeting / The black cheeks of the night, / With grim delight!
II. What witch's hand unhasps / Thy keen claw-cornered wings / From under the barn roof, and flings / Thee forth, with chattering gasps, / To scud the air, / And nip the lady-bug, and tear / Her children's hearts out unaware?
III. The glow-worm's glimmer, and the bright, / Sad pulsings of the fire-fly's light, / Are banquet lights to thee. / O less than bird, and worse than beast, / Thou Devil's self, or brat, at least, / Grate not thy teeth at me!