<h2><SPAN name="chap90"></SPAN>THE FLIGHT</h2>
<h5>I</h5>
<p class="poem">
O wild heart, track the land’s perfume,<br/>
Beach-roses and moor-heather!<br/>
All fragrances of herb and bloom<br/>
Fail, out at sea, together.<br/>
O follow where aloft find room<br/>
Lark-song and eagle-feather!<br/>
All ecstasies of throat and plume<br/>
Melt, high on yon blue weather.<br/>
<br/>
O leave on sky and ocean lost<br/>
The flight creation dareth;<br/>
Take wings of love, that mounts the most:<br/>
Find fame, that furthest fareth!<br/>
Thy flight, albeit amid her host<br/>
Thee, too, night star-like beareth,<br/>
Flying, thy breast on heaven’s coast,<br/>
The infinite outweareth.<br/></p>
<h5>II</h5>
<p class="poem">
“Dead o’er us roll celestial fires;<br/>
Mute stand Earth’s ancient beaches;<br/>
Old thoughts, old instincts, old desires,<br/>
The passing hour outreaches;<br/>
The soul creative never tires—<br/>
Evokes, adores, beseeches;<br/>
And that heart most the god inspires<br/>
Whom most its wildness teaches.<br/>
<br/>
“For I will course through falling years<br/>
And stars and cities burning;<br/>
And I will march through dying cheers<br/>
Past empires unreturning;<br/>
Ever the world flame reappears<br/>
Where mankind power is earning,<br/>
The nations’ hopes, the people’s tears,<br/>
One with the wild heart yearning.<br/></p>
<p class="left">
GEORGE EDWARD WOODBERRY</p>
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