Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889
The Eagle’s Fall
By Charles Goodrich Whiting (1842–1922)T
Aflight beyond mid-air
Erewhile his mighty pinions bore him,
His eyry left, the sun before him;
And not a bird could dare
To match with that tremendous motion,
Through fire and flood, ’twixt sky and ocean,—
But did ye see the eagle fall?
Struck in his flight of pride
He hung in air one lightning moment,
As wondering what the deadly blow meant,
And what his blood’s ebb-tide.
Whirling off sailed a loosened feather;
Then headlong, pride and flight together,—
’Twas thus ye saw the eagle fall!
But on the sedgy plain,
Where closed the monarch’s eye in dying,
Marked ye the screaming and the vying
Wherewith the feathered train,
Sparrow and jackdaw, hawk and vulture,
Gathered exulting to insult your
Great eagle in his fall?