Impatient of the tardy axe and oar, <br />Life clothes her tender flesh in toiling steel, <br />And like a broken mist the years reveal <br />The unascended heights that wait before. <br />Matter that was the king is king no more, <br />And we, released from that despotic heel, <br />Go up against the sun on slanting keel, <br />As men that crawled like ants like falcons soar. <br /> <br />How great those altitudes they do not know <br />Who see far upward their eternal snow, <br />And dream to join the eagles of their dome. <br />O valiant hearts, O you that take such wings <br />Above the humble heritage of things <br />Remember that the earth at last is home!<br /><br />George Sterling<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/wings-59/
