As on the sceptre of the Olympian King The Royal Eagle sat, bedrows'd and still, The Theban sketch'd him, while the savage will And strength of the great bird were slumbering; If Pindar drew him best with drooping wings, And on a quiet perch his likeness took, How shall the sonnet, least of rhythmic things, Presume to take him flying? Will he brook To wheel and hover, while I hunt for rhymes? Returning at the Muse's fitful times, For yet another study? And, if so, Will he not yearn at last to strike one blow At his own miniature, and swoop from high To clutch my climax with an angry cry? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE PROMETHEUS by JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL THE DAYS GONE BY by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY ENVOY: 2. TO MY MOTHER by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON BIVOUAC ON A MOUNTAIN SIDE by WALT WHITMAN TO MY FRIEND MR. THOMAS FLATMAN, ON THE PUBLISHING OF THESE HIS POEMS by FRANCIS BARNARD (D. 1698) THE SKY-LINE by RICHARD EUGENE BURTON ON THE UNION AND THREE-FOLD DISTINCTION OF GOD, NATURE AND CREATURE by JOHN BYROM |