Send Forth the High Falcon

Send forth the high falcon flying after the mind

Till it come toppling down from its cold cloud:

The beak of the falcon to pierce it till it fall

Where the simple heart is bowed.

O in wild innocence it rides

The rare ungovernable element,

But once it sways to terror and descent,

The marches of the wind are its abyss,

No wind staying it upward of the breast—

Let mind be proud for this,

And ignorant from what fabulous cause it dropt,

Or with how learned a gesture the unschooled heart

Shall lull both terror and innocence to rest.

 

BY LÉONIE ADAMS, 1959

Done