Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TO A STUFFED EAGLE, by LILLIAN LOWRY First Line: Space - / the shadow of your wings Last Line: Stuffed liberty! Subject(s): Birds; Eagles | ||||||||
Space -- the shadow of your wings Upon the clouds below Follows your own desire Which, when pursued, attained, Fades into space again. Another time, Another, and yet another, Your wings flash -- Soar! But what is time or space, Pursuit, attainment, or the like To you, winged Liberty? You sport above the clouds Or poise in flight, Wild eye alight and head half-turned To hear the voices of the winds Flung from majestic peaks Your wings have scorned; You catch the dawn glints on raw, reddened rock; The whine of day through space; The rustle of night settling down; The lull of the moon's wheels across the sky; Then dawn again -- And flashing through the day Your shadow falls on envious man Whose cunning pulled you from your height And brought you here to stand Above a courtroom door. Walls -- North, south, east, west. The shadow of your wings Upon the floor below Shifts with the gray light, And the light moves as reluctantly As feet that stumble to the witness stand. But what are stumblings or reluctance or the like To halls of justice -- or to you, stilled Liberty? So naturally you're poised with wings outstretched Under white, silent stars within a field of blue, Cold eye and head half-turned To hear the murmurings of justice -- The whine of voices swearing solemn oaths, Sonorous pleas and querulous defense, Staccato bark of cross-examiners, The rustle of reporters' yellow sheets; You catch wild hope's glint in red, rheumy eyes That search about for crumbs where Justice sits. So naturally you're poised with wings outstretched -- But cotton stifles where life rioted -- Stuffed liberty! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ONE TO NOTHING by CAROLYN KIZER FOR THE LAST WOLVERINE by JAMES DICKEY THE EAGLE OF THE BLUE by HERMAN MELVILLE THE EAGLE; A FRAGMENT by ALFRED TENNYSON THE DALLIANCE OF THE EAGLES by WALT WHITMAN THE EAGLE AND THE MOLE by ELINOR WYLIE |
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