Classic Poem

17 — EPILOG

The poem is ended:
Its song-wings weak
For flight so splendid
To earth descended
Surcease must seek.

Over centuries flying
To cull out days
For never-dying,
Amaranth-vying
Coronals of bays;

To picture duly
This continent,
States settled newly
(Miracles, truly!),
Its vast extent;

To tell the story
Of daily life,
Its beauty and glory,
The legends hoary,
The conquest and strife;

To show the beginning
And what it meant,
The vast web spinning,
The struggle and winning,
The crucial event —

My song audacious
This flight has essayed,
Over regions spacious,
Over landscapes gracious,
Through light and shade.

It may hap Derision
Will mock its attempt
To use prophet-vision,
To reach heights Elysian,
From earth-weight exempt.

Alas, the endeavor
Was foredoomed to fail!
A poet may never
From self dissever.
Still hides the Grail!

The essay is ended:
Take only its best
As a tribute intended,
O my Land marvel-blended,
North, South, East, and West!