C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Life Well Lost

WINGED by desire and thee, O dear delight!

As still the vast and succoring air I tread,

So, mounting still, on swifter pinions sped,

I scorn the world, and heaven receives my flight.

And if the end of Ikaros be nigh,

I will submit, for I shall know no pain:

And falling dead to earth, shall rise again;

What lowly life with such high death can vie?

Then speaks my heart from out the upper air,

“Whither dost lead me? sorrow and despair

Attend the rash:” and thus I make reply:—

“Fear thou no fall, nor lofty ruin sent;

Safely divide the clouds, and die content,

When such proud death is dealt thee from on high.”