Of a Wild White Bird
by Louise Mack (1870-1935)

To soar as a wild white bird,
      With a song unbound and fetterless!
With a gush of song in the throat,
      Loosened and loud and letterless,
And the wind its only accompaniment.

To sing and soar and look down
      On a world one leaves when one tires of it:
With a glancing wing for a sail,
      Dashing, when one desires of it,
Through the spray of the great sea-wilderness.

Or sweeping with mighty curves
      From land to sky, and to land again:
To cast off Time, and to stay
      Where one’s will alone lays hand on one:
Not to own or owe in the universe.

Sudden and swift some day
      Meet Death, and know no fear of Him,
But close the eyes and have done.
      . . . When a wild bird dies none hear of him.
He has sung and ceased, and is happiest.

Views: 42