It is not enough to say the crow flies purposefully, or heavily, or rowingly, or whatever. There are no words to capture the infinite depth of crowiness in the crow's flight. All we can do is use a word as an indicator, or a whole bunch of words as a general directive. But the ominous thing in the crow's flight, the bare-faced, bandit thing, the tattered beggarly gipsy thing, the caressing and shaping yet slightly clumsy gesture of the down-stroke, as if the wings were both too heavy and too powerful, and the headlong sort of merriment, the macabre pantomime ghoulishness and the undertaker sleekness - you could go on for a very long time with phrases of that sort and still have completely missed your instant, glimpse knowledge of the world of the crow's wingbeat. And a bookload of such descriptions is immediately rubbish when you look up and see the crow flying. Ted Hughes
About This Quote

William Shakespeare said: “It is not enough to say the crow flies purposefully, or heavily, or rowingly, or whatever.” Meaning that the crow does not take flight in a way that would describe its intent or purpose. It does it in a way that would be described as “random,” and covers many different types of flight. The words we use to describe such flights are only general indicators of the reality we cannot comprehend.

Source: Poetry In The Making: An Anthology

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