Here is a symbol in which Many high tragic thoughts Watch their own eyes. This gray rock, standing tall On the headland, where the seawind Lets no tree grow, Earthquake-proved, and signatured By ages of storms: on its peak A falcon has perched. I think, here is your emblem To hang in the future sky; Not the cross, not the hive, But this; bright power, dark peace; Fierce consciousness joined with final Disinterestedness; Life with calm death; the falcon's Realist eyes and act Married to the massive Mysticism of stone, Which failure cannot cast down Nor success make proud. Poised how many centuries Birds have quenched their thirst at it, And not a pebble moved. Moved—not by wind or rain, Nor on the hard way of the world Has this solitary granite For its own sake shifted a pebble: 'Plainly there has been here A great deal of God.' | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LAURA SLEEPING; ODE by CHARLES COTTON TO HIS DYING BROTHER, MASTER WILLIAM HERRICK by ROBERT HERRICK THE LAST SUPPER by RAINER MARIA RILKE THE LUTE OBEYS by THOMAS WYATT UNDER THE WHARF by IDA COLE BARTLATT THE DAYS OF '84 by RANDOLPH BEDFORD |