And far away at the other end, startling in its suddenness andimpetuosity, 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 thelongest, was the shortest, "short and sharp like the shrill swallow'scry," or perhaps even more like the shrieky bark of an enraged littlecur; not a _reveille_ and silvern morning song in one, as a crow shouldbe, but a challenge and a defiance, wounding the sense like a spur, andsuggesting the bustle and fury of the cockpit.

If this style of crowing was known to Milton, it is perhaps accountablefor the one bad couplet in the "Allegro":