Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

By Charles GoodrichWhiting

813 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?