Ambition

BY W.L.

I saw the eagle with undazzled eye
Gaze on the sun, as soaring through the sky
On mighty wing the kingly bird of Jove
To reach that burning beacon proudly strove;
I watched his lofty course, till from my sight
He vanished mid the blazing beams of light;
Still on he soared, though lost to human view,
While naught of fear his lordly bosom knew,
Till in the region of the thinner skies
More slowly now the airy monarch flies;
But in those realms through which no cloud may sail
He sinks at last, and all his efforts fail—
And hurled from heaven upon the flinty rock,
His form lies mangled with the fearful shock.

I saw the lion in his lordly pride,
The forest monarch, through its thickets stride—
His majesty of strength is aye revered,
By man admired, by brute creation feared.
But not content his kingly power should span
The lesser brutes, he turns his strength on man;
This vain ambition makes him darkly blind,
He dares to war upon the power of mind!
The lord of earth asserts his birthright here;
The lord of forests falls beneath his spear.
Ambition! thus thy course is ever run,
And like the eagle soaring to the sun,
Or the fierce lion in his brutal strength,
Man vainly strives, and thus he falls at length.

—American Cultivator.