"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.”S. T. Joshi, title unknown, Necropsy (October 8, 2003); reprinted in Esoteric Order of Dagon: Continuity n. 136 (November 2006), pp. 11-13. "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.”William Rose Benét, “Four Poets,” New York Post Literary Review, (August 18, 1923), p. 27. The New York Times said: “No finer sonnet has been written for many a day.”“A Poet Who Finds Himself: Mr. Sterling’s Success in His Latest Volume of Verse,” New York Times Review of Books (June 25, 1911), p. 400. 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.”Robert G. Berkelman, “George Sterling on ‘The Black Vulture,” American Literature, v. 10 n. 2 (May, 1938), pp. 223–224. 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.
Creation of the poem “The Black Vulture” is a Petrarchan sonnet of fourteen iambic pentameter lines. George Sterling first titled his poem "The Californian Condor""The Californian Condor" manuscript in the University of Virginia Library: or "The California Condor."Typescript hand-corrected and signed by Sterling with handwritten comments by Ambrose Bierce, Albert M. Bender Collection of George Sterling Papers, Book Arts & Special Collections, San Francisco Public Library. Sterling wrote the sonnet in 1909 and sent "The California Condor" to his mentor Ambrose Bierce for review.Sterling either mailed the sonnet to Bierce January 5, 1910 with a group of poems Sterling had written before Christmas 1909 (which Bierce returned January 29, 1910), or mailed the sonnet to Bierce earlier in 1909 with a group of poems Bierce returned October 9, 1909. See Bierce January 29, 1910 letter to Sterling, The Letters of Ambrose Bierce, Bertha Clark Pope [and George Sterling, uncredited], eds. (San Francisco: Book Club of California, 1922), pp. 158-159; Sterling January 5, 1910 letter to Bierce, Dear Master: Letters of George Sterling to Ambrose Bierce, 1900 - 1912, Roger K. Larson, ed. (San Francisco: Book Club of California, 2002), pp. 198-200; Bierce October 9, 1909 letter to Sterling, Letters of Ambrose Bierce, pp. 155-156. Bierce responded: The only fault I see in this is the abrupt change in the "point of view" in the first few lines from the man's to the condor's. In the first line he is "a mote" (seen from below)--the reader is on the earth. In the third line the reader is with the condor, looking down. Isn't that pretty "sudden"? The "roads between the thunder and the sun"--that is great!"The California Condor" typescript.
Sterling sold his sonnet to Sunset magazine, which printed it as "The Condor" in its March 1910 issue, six years and three months after the Wright Brothers’ first flight.George Sterling, "The Condor," Sunset v. 24 n. 3 (March 1910), p. 243. The magazine put a color painting on its front cover of Sterling piloting a biplane (which in real life the poet never did) while wearing a red necktie (which the poet did do, and which in those days proclaimed the wearer to be a socialist). "The Condor" was reprinted by the Sapulpa [Oklahoma] Sunday Light.Sapulpa [Oklahoma] Sunday Light (May 1, 1910), p. 11.
Next, as Bierce suggested, Sterling changed his poem's first line from "A mote upon the day’s immeasured dome" to "Aloof within the day’s immeasured dome," made three other small changes, and retitled his revised sonnet "The Black Vulture." He included it in his 1911 poetry collection The House of Orchids and Other Poems. Sterling later changed his first line's "immeasured" to "enormous," resulting in three slightly different versions of "The Black Vulture." His final revision is the version provided here.
Text of the poem
Interpretations What is “The Black Vulture” about? The cover-assigning Sunset editor and the New York Times Book Review editor seemed to agree that the poem celebrates aviation. The Times editor wrote that people had written many poems about aviation, “but we have not happened to see any other poem, having this new art or science as its theme, in which the subject is treated with so much imagination and such literary skill as have gone to the making of “The Black Vulture.”“Books and Authors,” New York Times Review of Books (May 7, 1911), part 6, p. 1.
Many readers drew other conclusions. Like all of Sterling's 500-plus sonnets, “The Black Vulture” has a first section about one topic and a second section about a related second topic. Some readers of this poem felt the first section shows nature from the soaring predator's lofty point of view, while the second section regrets people trespassing in nature.
Other readers arrived at other interpretations. High school seniors given “The Black Vulture” described a variety of points of view. One concluded: “While he is sitting on top of the world, he is not concerned with the affairs of the people beneath him.” A second senior wrote: “Worldly heights and worldly storms are nothing, and human endeavors are controlled by a black vulture—Fate.” Another elaborated: “The solitary vulture looks down from his high home on the life below him, and he thinks of man least of all though it is man who plans to execute his own dream by sharing the high dominion with the vulture.” Another said he or she thought: “From his position in the sky, the Black Vulture looks down upon the other mighty birds, the sunset, and the mountains. He looks with contempt on man and man’s dreams. This vulture, or Death, little realizes that men in their adventures have no fear of him.”Arthur Willis Leonard and Claude Moore Fuess, Practical Précis Writing (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1929), pp. 51–52.
That the black vulture was Death and the poem expresses mankind's quest to avoid it has been the view of several readers, including leading historian-critic of fantasy and horror literature S. T. Joshi, who called "The Black Vulture": "a grim portrayal of the all-destroying power of Death."S. T. Joshi, “Introduction” to George Sterling, The Thirst of Satan: Poems of Fantasy and Terror, S. T. Joshi, ed. (New York: Hippocampus Press, 2003), p. 14. One college student's vehement insistence on the “Death interpretation” drove his English professor to ask Sterling what this poem means. Sterling replied:
“The Black Vulture” is a nature-poem pure and simple. There are few poems into which some kind of symbolism cannot be read, with a little imagination—and a good many where symbolism was intended. But I am not guilty in this case. The folk of the Santa Lucia mountains call our California condor “the black vulture,” and once, when on the Big Sur river, I saw one of the great birds poised a mile or more overhead. They are larger even than the Andean condor, their wings spreading over ten feet in some specimens. It’s a fine of $1000. for shooting one, as the bird is very scarce and becoming rarer yearly. I doubt if there are 20 in all California. They range from the Big Sur (a mere stream) southward into Mexico.Sterling letter to Professor Robert G. Berkelman, April 27, 1925; quoted in Robert G. Berkelman, “George Sterling on ‘The Black Vulture,’” American Literature, v. 10 n. 2 (May, 1938), pp. 223–224.
Critical response The poem's reputation mushroomed in 1911, when a New York Times editor saw "The Black Vulture" in Sterling's book The House of Orchids and Other Poems and was impressed. He placed the poem as the New York Times Review of Books front cover's lead item and praised the sonnet as showing "much imagination and literary skill.""Books and Authors," New York Times Review of Books (May 7, 1911), part 6, p. 1: "Many a minor poet has had his shot at aviation; but we have not happened to see any other poem, having this new art or science as its theme, in which the subject is treated with so much imagination and such literary skill as have gone to the making of “The Black Vulture," reprinted on this page from Mr. Sterling's The House of Orchids. The sonnet might have been written by William Walton." Weeks later, the New York Times Review of Books printed "The Black Vulture" again, this time with its review of The House of Orchids and Other Poems, stating, "No finer sonnet has been written for many a day.""A Poet Who Finds Himself: Mr. Sterling’s Success in His Latest Volume of Verse,” New York Times Review of Books (June 25, 1911), p. 400.
After the New York Times highlighted “The Black Vulture,” dozens of newspapers around the country reprinted it—even one in England. Almost half the papers also reprinted the Times’ praise of the poem.
In other publications’ reviews of The House of Orchids and Other Poems, some reviewers singled out “The Black Vulture.” Poet Joyce Kilmer, in Literary Digest, decided: “By writing ‘[A] Wine of Wizardry’ and ‘The Black Vulture,’ George Sterling earned the gratitude of all lovers of poetry."Joyce Kilmer, "Current Poetry," Literary Digest v. 49 n. 19 (November 17, 1914), p. 903.
In 1917, the Book Club of California asked Sterling to select out of all his sonnets his favorite thirty-five to include in an artistically designed, limited edition book, Thirty-Five Sonnets. Sterling chose "The Black Vulture" as one of his favorites. Six years later, Sterling again chose "The Black Vulture" when New York publishing firm Henry Holt and Company asked Sterling to choose from all the poems he'd written in his first 25 years as a poet to form a collection of his Selected Poems. Reviewing that book in the New York Post, poet and critic William Rose Benét wrote: “As for ‘The Black Vulture,’ I think it is one of the finest sonnets in the language.”William Rose Benét, “Four Poets,” New York Post Literary Review, (August 18, 1923), p. 27. Elsewhere in the New York Post, critic Christopher Morley called it "a noble sonnet" and reprinted it.Christopher Morley, "Speaking of Sonnets," New York Evening Post (October unknown date, 1922; reprinted San Francisco Bulletin (October 31, 1922), p. 14. In 1926, shortly before his death, Sterling listed his favorite sonnets and sent his list to a publisher as a proposed pamphlet. Out of more than 500 sonnets Sterling wrote, he included "The Black Vulture" as one of his seventeen favorites.Sterling 1926 letter to J. J. Newman (publisher of The Harp magazine), UCLA Special Collections. Poet Robinson Jeffers encountered the poem in a poetry anthology and wrote to Sterling: “Your ‘Black Vulture’ stood out in it like a mountain peak.”Jeffers 1925 letter to Sterling: Robinson and Una Jeffers, The Collected Letters of Robinson Jeffers: 1890–1930, James Karman, ed. (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 2009), p. 524.