AN INCIDENT
by: Elizabeth Oakes-Smith
(1806-1893)
- SIMPLE
thing, yet chancing as it did,
- When life was bright with its illusive dreams,
- A pledge and promise seemed beneath it hid
The ocean lay before me, tinged with beams
- That lingering draped the west, a wavering stir;
- And at my feet down fell a worn gray quill:
- And eagle, high above the darkling fir,
- With steady flight, seemed there to take his fill
- Of that pure ether breathed by him alone.
- O noble bird! why didst thou loose for me
- Thy eagle plume? still unessayed, unknown,
- Must be that pathway fearless winged by thee:
- I ask it not, no lofty flight be mine;
- I would not soar like thee, in loneliness to pine!
"An Incident" is reprinted
from The Sinless Child and Other Poems. Elizabeth Oakes
Smith. New York: Wiley & Putnam, 1843. |
MORE POEMS BY ELIZABETH OAKES-SMITH |
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