| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900. |
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| 813. The Eagle’s Fall |
| | | By Charles Goodrich Whiting |
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| THE EAGLE, did ye see him fall?— | |
| Aflight beyond mid-air | |
| Erewhile his mighty pinions bore him, | |
| His eyry left, the sun before him; | |
| And not a bird could dare | 5 |
| To match with that tremendous motion, | |
| Through fire and flood, ’twixt sky and ocean,— | |
| But did ye see the eagle fall? | |
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| And so ye saw the eagle fall! | |
| Struck in his flight of pride | 10 |
| He hung in air one lightning moment, | |
| As wondering what the deadly blow meant, | |
| And what his blood’s ebb tide. | |
| Whirling off sailed a loosened feather; | |
| Then headlong, pride and flight together,— | 15 |
| ’T was thus ye saw the eagle fall! | |
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| Thus did ye see the eagle fall! | |
| But on the sedgy plain, | |
| Where closed the monarch’s eye in dying, | |
| Marked ye the screaming and the vying | 20 |
| Wherewith the feathered train, | |
| Sparrow and jackdaw, hawk and vulture, | |
| Gathered exulting to insult your | |
| Great eagle in his fall? | |
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