Owl

dead. But such a performance needs applause and Vindice cannot resist boasting to Antonio. Antonio, who had at one time himself been prepared to don die mask of the revenger, recoils in horror and sends die revengers to their execution. Vindice, who had always been influenced by die roles he played, after the first shock at what he felt was Antonio's ingratitude, plays his final role to the end with bravura— if not with self-knowledge. After all, he tells Hippolito, rfaith, we're well, our mother turned, our sister true, We die after a nest of dukes. Owl Let me be the first to call you, owl. Owl. Owl, I picture a tree as spare, as ghostly as bone. Why is diis owl alone in so pale a tree? Why below the bone cold tree do rivers loop like chain, and what is it scurries in the brush as if it had forever ? Owl, I cry. Even the name cries, even the crying, even my calling my loss of you, owl. BRUCE EDWARD TAYLOR Bruce Edward Taylor teaches at the University of Wisconsin. He edited Eating the Menu: A Contemporary American Poetry 1970-1974 in 1974. 122THE REVENGER DRAMATIST ...