The Black Vulture

"The Black Vulture" is a sonnet by American poet George Sterling first printed in March 1910. Sterling's sonnets are highly regarded. Literary historian S. T. Joshi wrote: “If there were any justice in the world, Sterling would be hailed as perhaps the most proficient sonneteer in American literature.” "The Black Vulture" was cited by Thomas E. Benediktsson in his book George Sterling as "a sonnet which became Sterling’s most consistently praised and most anthologized poem." Poet and critic William Rose Benét wrote: “As for ‘The Black Vulture,’ I think it is one of the finest sonnets in the language.” The New York Times said: “No finer sonnet has been written for many a day.” In American Literature, professor Robert G. Berkelman called it “one of Sterling’s most enduring achievements and certainly among the memorable sonnets in our literature.” After the poem's first book publication in 1911, reprints of “The Black Vulture” in newspapers, magazines, and books have kept it almost continually in print for more than a hundred years.