Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1874-11-29
rurn.prIvE EAGLE.

| beautiful poem, which he says he found years
agOin an old natural history in his fathers libra
nv. where the name of its author was not given,
| aud which he has never met with elsewhere. Its
freshness, simplicity and vigOr are such, he
thinks. that it should not waste It's sweetness on
the desert air Of his serap-boOk:l
An eagle sat on the stormy peak
OF a mcuntain's rugged crag,
Where the wirds Of the winter whistled bleak
And uttered their bOisterous brag.
His head was as bald as the cliff where he sat.
And his neck was as white as its snow,
And his eve was like that Of the mountain cat
When he glares ON his prey below.
On the scathed limb of an ancient oak
He had taken his lofty stand,
And thence he looked down where wreaths of
Gave tokens of cultured land.
And swsy and away did his gaze extend
Der the oceans waters blue,
And he heard the roar on the distant shore
Where the snOw-white sea-gulls few.
He had perched his nest on that mountains
In the eve of the glorious sun,
And he looked on the face of the day king now
= AS for many long years he had done.
He had seen his eaglets thence 90 forth
To the chase of the hawkon the sea,
He had sailed on the iey-winged blast Of the
And screamed as he rode it with glee.
LOngyears had he dwelt ON that MOUNTAINS
And sailed DER that oceans gloom,
When the morning was bright, or the blackness
Made darker the tempest's plume.
Long years had he stood by that roaring food,
And hot 49, L.. =
By the storm rent oak his decree he spoke
And his will 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,
OF natures liberty.
BE sat with his noble wings outspread
For flight DER the sunny land,
And he launched through the air like an arrow
that's sped
From practieed archer's hand
Away downdeep to the scene below,
He few on fearless wing,
And he paused where waterfall turned into
snow
The stream of woodland spring.
All bird of royalty, sad for thee
To have left thy mountain height,
Where thy way was unmatched, and thy wing
was free,
And none 70 arrest thy fight
For the hunter has marked thy downward
And fixed on thee his eye,
And has lifted his gun to the monday sun,
And said that thou shalt die.
A fash and a roar, and the eagle rose
From the tree where his perch had been,
And the echo that woke in that forest of oak
Shouted loud as 70 chide the sin.
He scared away on his upward fight
As he uttered piercing cryi
He suddenly dropped, like a meteor Of night
That falls in a summer sly.
With broken wing, he could no more seek
To rise in the glare Of day;
So the monarch that reigned on the mountain
Was carried captive away.
In sumptuOns cage was the eagle placed,
And his food was served with care,
And the hunter sought 70 provide his taste
With al that was rich and rare.
His meat in a dainty dish was brought,
And his drink in a basin trim;
But that which he most desired and sought,
o, that was not brought to him.
Where were the woods with their scathed trees9
Where was the torrents roar?
Where was the sigh of the northern breeze?
The surf on the wind-best shore?
Where were the oceans crested wavesP
Where were the fOwer-crowned hills?
Where were the NOISY rocks and csves2
Where were the Ginning rills2
Where were the high, majestic peaks
Where the sun in his glory shined?
Q, he had all these in his memories
Il was these for which he pinned.
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 thraldom's tether,
To sOOthe him was all in vain;
The mountain monarch was altogether
Unfit for slayery's chain.
He could not endure his splendid prison
When summer was in the sky;
He could not endure, when the sun had up
risen,
To watch him with captive eye.
free breath from the mountains came DER !
him again,
When rising In native pride
He buried his talOns deep, deep In his brain.
And a MARTYR n liberty died