The Eagle's Fall

  the eagle, did ye see him fall?—     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?   And so ye saw 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,—   ’T was thus ye saw the eagle fall!   Thus did ye see 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?