THE HOUSE ON THE HILL

Eagle, your broken wings are tangled

Among the mountain ferns

On a ledge of rock on high.

Below the yawning chasm turns

To blackness, but the evening planet burns

Above the gulf in a gold and purple sky!

Vultures and kites

Fly to their rookeries

In the rocks

With swift and ragged wings against the lights.

From levels and from leas

Haste the returning flocks.

Foxes have holes and serpents the grass for flight.

Eagle, arise! It is night.

The world's wanderer finds you

As he climbs the mountains

In the unending quest.

Can you spread wings across the darkening chasm

To the craggy nest,

Where the foreboding mate lies still?

Croak for the evening star,

And beat your shattered wings against your breast!

Across the gulf the wanderer sees afar

A light in the house on the hill!