Tossed like a falcon from the hunter's wrist, <br />A sweeping plunge, a sudden shattering noise, <br />And thou hast dared, with a long spiral twist, <br />The elastic stairway to the rising sun. <br />Peril below thee and above, peril <br />Within thy car; but peril cannot daunt <br />Thy peerless heart: gathering wing and poise, <br />Thy plane transfigured, and thy motor-chant <br />Subduéd to a whisper -- then a silence, -- <br />And thou art but a disembodied venture <br />In the void. <br /> <br />But Death, who has learned to fly, <br />Still matchless when his work is to be done, <br />Met thee between the armies and the sun; <br />Thy speck of shadow faltered in the sky; <br />Then thy dead engine and thy broken wings <br />Drooped through the arc and passed in fire, <br />A wreath of smoke -- a breathless exhalation. <br />But ere that came a vision sealed thine eyes, <br />Lulling thy senses with oblivion; <br />And from its sliding station in the skies <br />Thy dauntless soul upward in circles soared <br />To the sublime and purest radiance whence it sprang. <br /> <br />In all their eyries, eagles shall mourn thy fate, <br />And leaving on the lonely crags and scaurs <br />Their unprotected young, shall congregate <br />High in the tenuous heaven and anger the sun <br />With screams, and with a wild audacity <br />Dare all the battle danger of thy flight; <br />Till weary with combat one shall desert the light, <br />Fall like a bolt of thunder and check his fall <br />On the high ledge, smoky with mist and cloud, <br />Where his neglected eaglets shriek aloud, <br />And drawing the film across his sovereign sight <br />Shall dream of thy swift soul immortal <br />Mounting in circles, faithful beyond death.<br /><br />Duncan Campbell Scott<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-a-canadian-aviator-who-died-for-his-country-i/
