Classic Poem

Oh for the wing of the wild-bird,
Daring and dauntless and free,
The silence and scent of the forest,
The breath of the hills and the sea.

Down the dim shores of dream-islands,
On through the ocean of blue,
To fly with a comrade, a lover,
A soul that is always true.

Oh for a rest where the star-gleams
Keep with the darkness a truce
In shades of the evergreen pine-tree
Or groves of the odorous spruce.

Slumbering 'mid spacious horizons
Under the sentinel stars,
Breathing the balm of the balsams,
The fragrance of deodars;

Waking to see o'er the hilltops,
Daylight's fair banners unfurled
When morning comes flinging her glories
Up the round sweep of the world.

Then under splendid cloud-arches,
Up the vast reaches of sky,
Pinion to pinion wide-soaring,
My comrade-lover and I,

Far on the wing of the wild-bird
Daring and dauntless would flee.
Inhaling the air of the mountain,
The scent of the infinite sea.