The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1874-12-18
THE CAPTIVE EAGLE.
An eagle sat on the stormy peak
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An eagle sat on the stormy peak
o. a mountains rugged crsg,
Where the winds Of the winter whistled bleak
And uttered their boisterous brag.
His head was as bald as the cliff where he sat,
And his neck white as its snow,
And his eye was like that Of the mountain cat
When he glares on his prey below.
On the scathed Iimb Of an ancient oak
He had taken his lofty stand
And thence he looked down where wrestbs Of smoke
Gave tokens Of cultured land.
And away aud away did his gaze extend
Ger the oceans waters blue,
And ne heard the roar on the distant shore
Mhere the snOv-white sea-gulls few.
He had perched his nest on that mountains brow,
In the eye Of the glorious sun,
ana ne looked on the face of the cay king now
As Tor many long years he had done.
He had seen his eaglets thence go forth
To the chase Of the hawk on the sea,
He had sailed on the icyWnged blast Of the north,
And screamed as he rode it with glee.
Long years had he dwelt On that mountains height
Aud sailed DER that oceans gloom,
When the morning was bright, or the blackness of
Made darker the tempests plume.
Long years bad he stood by that roaring food,
And that rock was his Kingdoms throne;
By the storTn-rent oak his decree he spoke,
And his viii was his law alone.
Even now he sat on that oak so bare,
Majestic and proud and free,
The emblem at once, and the glorious heir,
Oh natures liberty.
He sat with his noble wings outspread
Fen a fight DER the sunny land,
And he launched through the air like an arrow
that's sped
From practiced archer's hand.
Away down deep to the scene below,
He few fearless wing,
And be paused where waterfall turned into show
The stream Of q woodland spring.
All! bird of royalty, sad for thee
To have left thy mountain height,
Where thy way was unmatched, and thy wing was
And none to arrest thy flight.
For the hunter has marked thy downward course
And fixed on thee his eye,
And has lifted his gun to the MONDAY sun,
Aud said that thou shalt die.
A fash and a roar, and the eagle rose
From the tree where his perch had been,
Aud the echo that woke in that forest of oak
Shouted loud as to chide the sin.
He scared away on his upward flight
As he uttered piercing cry;
He suddenly dropped, like a meteor Of night,
That falls IN a summer sky.
With broken wing he could no more seek
To rise in the glare of day;
So the monarch that reigued on the naountain peak
Was carried captive away. w. #
In a sumptuous cage was the eagle placed,
And his food wss served with care,
And the hunter sought to provide his taste
q With all that was rich and rare.
His meat in a dainty dish was brought,
And his drink in q basin trim,
But that which he most desired and sought,
0, that was not brought to him.
Where were the woods with their scathed trees
Where was the torrents roar?
Where was the sigh of the northern breeze?
The surf on the wind-beat shore?
Where were the oceans crested waves7
Where were the fower-crowned hills?
Where were the messy rocks and caves
Where were the Ginning rills?
Where were the high, majestic peaks
Where the sun in his glory shined?
o, Ae had all these in his memories
1t was these for which he pined
With a spirit broke, like his wounded wing,
As flower that is nipped by the frost,
He was wearing away and whitening,
For the life of his life was lost.
While the noble bird was in thraIdom's tether,
To soOJhe him was all in vain:
The mountain monarch altogether
Unfit for sIavery's chain.
He could not endure his splendid prison
When summer was in the sky;
He could not endure, when the sun had uprisen,
To watch him with captive eye.
free breath from the mountains came DER him
again,
when rising in native pride,
He buried his tElOns deep, Geep in his brain,
And martyr to liberty died.