Eagles of Tiberius

They say at Capri that Tiberius bound

His slaves to eagles, ere he had them flung

In the abysses, from the rocks that hung

Beetling above the sea and the sea's sound.

Slowly the eagle, struggling round and round

With the gagged slave that from his talons swung,

Sank through the air, to which he fiercely clung,

Until the sea caught both, and both were drowned.

O Eagle of the Spirit, hold thy own;

Work thy great wings, and grapple to the sky;

Let not this shackled body drag thee down

Into that stagnant sea where, by-and-by,

The ethereal and the clayey both must drown,

Bound by a link that neither can untie!