Page:The Poetical Works of William Motherwell, 1849.djvu/249



Our eagle-wings of might we stretch before the gallant wind, And we leave the tame and sluggish earth a dim mean speck behind; We shoot into the untracked deep, as earth-freed spirits soar, Like stars of fire through boundless space—through realms without a shore!

Lords of this wide-spread wilderness of waters, we bound free, The haughty elements alone dispute our sovereignty; No landmark doth our freedom let, for no law of man can mete The sky which arches o'er our head—the waves which kiss our feet!

The warrior of the land may back the wild horse, in his pride; But a fiercer steed we dauntless breast—the untamed ocean tide; And a nobler tilt our bark careers, as it quells the saucy wave, While the Herald storm peals o'er the deep the glories of the brave.