Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, PIONEERS OF THE AIR, by AMOS RUSSEL WELLS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

PIONEERS OF THE AIR, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: They leap from the level road
Last Line: Break a way for the world!
Subject(s): Aviation & Aviators


They leap from the level road,
They spurn the prudent plain,
The clouds are their high abode,
The sky is their domain.

Sons of the lords of earth,
Of water and of fire,
Born of a daring birth,
Newly do they aspire.

Forth to the element
That only is unsubdued,
Boldly their way is bent,
Firm in their fortitude.

They fashion eager wings,
They curve the pinions fair,
They contrive a force for the fragile things,
And fling them into the air.

They ride the racing wind,
They mount the welcoming steeps,
They leave the hawks behind,
They sweep as the eagle sweeps.

Abreast of the day they run,
They leap the horizon bars;
Their eyes are like the sun,
Their soul is kin to the stars.

Under their spurning flight
The air is a steady floor,
Time is a flash of light
And space is an open door.

What though a winged death
Shadows their sunny way?
Never a faltering breath,
Never a weak delay.

A burst of flame on high,
A fall as a meteor falls!
Out of the shuddering sky
Vainly the curlew calls.

Yet from the wreckage still,
Smiling in death's despite,
Another of equal skill
Springs for a farther flight.

Ah, jubilant pioneers,
Read what the future hath,
Beyond our hesitant fears,
Ahead of our plodding path.

To mystical regions bear
The banner of hope unfurled,
And through the wilderness air
Break a way for the world!





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