Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, CONQUERING EAGLES, by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

CONQUERING EAGLES, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I read the classic book -- and raised mine eyes
Last Line: The conquering eagles of imperial rome!
Subject(s): Birds; Eagles; Rhyme; Rome, Italy; Sea; War; Ocean


I READ the classic book -- and raised mine eye
To where, with sun-tipped spears, went by
A great, armed host. The splendid roads were thronged
With all the trappings that to war belonged.

Next, I beheld how figures stately, slow,
With filleted calm brows drew past; and lo,
A temple white, within whose pillared porch
I saw the sacred fires leap like a torch.

While sharp against the saffron-colored sea
(How it comes back to musing memory!)
Swayed to and fro the swollen tides of folk,
The hewers and the builders at their work.

High from a hill, swept sounds of song that fell
Upon the city like a miracle;
The feet of heroes, like as rhyme to rhyme,
Fell into harmony and kept march time.

* * * * * * * * *

All this I saw. Still rule the spirit these
Enshrined shapes from out the centuries;
Still cry along a sky that seems their home
The conquering eagles of imperial Rome!





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