Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE SEA-EAGLES OF COLUMBIA, by THOMAS AUGUSTINE DALY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE SEA-EAGLES OF COLUMBIA, by                    
First Line: Columbia's eagles of the sea
Last Line: "have borne thy slogan: ""sail! Sail on!"
Alternate Author Name(s): Daly, T. A.
Subject(s): Birds; Columbia River (north America); Eagles; Sea; Ocean


COLUMBIA'S eagles of the sea
Arose and took the trackless main;
They were the first, and they were three --
As were the caravels of Spain.
Before them lay the gray Azores,
Before them night, nor glint of dawn,
But through the gloom that veiled those shores
They still sailed on, and on, and on!

The spirit of the Genoese,
Be sure, was burning in each breast
In flight across those chartless seas
Where first his galleons braved the west.
From out that west now grown so great
His eagles winged into the dawn,
And, matching his disdain of fate,
With courage high, sailed on and on!

What joy, what thrill was theirs, to be
The first through that vast void to fly,
And, poised above the central sea,
Meet morning coming up the sky!
Still toward the sun those eagles flew;
Two, faltering in the fog, were gone!
But one, through mists and rifts of blue,
With dauntless faith sailed on and on.

A speck on ocean's rim appears!
It grows! It glistens in the sun.
The happy eagle swoops and veers
Along the shore. The goal is won!

. . . . . . .

O great and valiant Genoese!
Thy sons inherit thee! 'Tis done!
They, too, across thy trackless seas
Have borne thy slogan: "Sail! sail on!"





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