Poems (Argent)/The Chained Eagle

by Alice Emily Argent

THE CHAINED EAGLE.

SUBLIME, majestical and grand,
Yet captive in an alien land!

The tameless fire within thine eye
That scans the wide expanse of sky,

Unflinching sees the hot sun glare
His fiery beams athwart the air.

Poor captured eagle! thou so great
Art doomed to an ignoble fate.

The king of birds bereft of flight
And freedom of the air and light!

What though the garden's rich perfume
Lifts all the landscape out of gloom?

Thou mark'st not all this bright array,
The peerless roses, flow'rets gay.

The pansies blowing fair and free
And lilies, what are they to thee?

Within thy fierce and wild dark eye
A homesick thought doth seem to lie,

And in the vision of thy breast
Imprinted is the mountain crest,

Thine eyrie home, all grim and hoar,
Where the loud surges evermore

Beat in a savage tumult o'er
The turbulent waves of that wild shore.

The world-worn rocks thou lov'dst, still lie
Open to earth and air and sky.

Once bonnie Scotland, proud and free,
Owned thee the monarch of the sea.

And still, methinks, upon thine ear
The waves' loud music thou canst hear,

The whirling foam that loved to break,
And o'er thee in a whirlwind shake.

No more, poor bird, shall such delight
Dazzle thy lofty spirit's flight.

No more the rapture born of strife,
The grandeur of thine early life,

Will cry around thee, for thy fate
Is to be servile to the great!

And nought can compensate to thee
Since thou hast lost thy liberty!