Classic Poem

Freedom and power
He craved and sought
In deeds that flower
From the seeds of thought,
And ever for his people and land he wrought.

His aspiration,
Early and late,
Was to build a nation
Unfettered and great—
To establish a nation and to make a state.

His splendid vision
He followed still,
Though of sour derision
Oft poured his fill,
Oft served with the charred crusts of ill-will.

—Of the golden eagle
That floats on high,
Bird of birds most regal,
Men seldom spy
More than shadow on earth, black speck in the sky:

Great spirits are lonely
And live unknown,
For men see only
Their shadows thrown
From Everests where they wander alone.—

Lonely, unresting,
He went his way,
Resistlessly questing
By night and day
The vision that beckoned, but would not stay.

Now earth's toil over,
From some new shore
New plains he'll discover,
New peaks explore
In lands untroubled by Time's mute roar.

But the feathers regal,
The plumes of gold,
Of this human eagle
We may now behold—
They are Earth's and ours, to have and to hold.