Poems (Botta)/Lines on an Incident Observed From the Deck of a Steamboat on the Mississippi River
LINES
ON AN INCIDENT OBSERVED FROM THE DECK OF A STEAMBOAT ON THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.
Where the dark primeval forests Rise against the western sky,And “the Father of the Waters” In his strength goes rushing by:
There an eagle, flying earthward From his eyrie far above,With a serpent of the forest In a fierce encounter strove.
Now he gains and now he loses, Now he frees his ruffled wings;And now high in air he rises; But the serpent round him clings.
In that death embrace entwining, Now they sink and now they rise;But the serpent wins the battle With the monarch of the skies.
Yet his wings still struggle upward, Though that crushing weight they bear;But more feebly those broad pinions Strike the waves of upper air.
Down to earth he sinks a captive In that writhing, living chain;Never o’er the blue horizon Will his proud form sweep again.
Never more in lightning flashes Will his eye of terror gleamRound the high and rocky eyrie, Where his lonely eaglets scream.
Oh majestic, royal eagle, Soaring sunward from thy birth,Thou hast lost the realm of heaven For one moment on the earth!
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