Song Of The Aviator
You may thrill with the speed of your thoroughbred steed,
You may laugh with delight as you ride the ocean,
You may rush afar in your touring car,
Leaping, sweeping, by things that are creeping-
But you never will know the joy of motion
Till you rise up over the earth some day,
And soar like an eagle, away-away.
High and higher above each spire,
Till lost to sight is the tallest steeple,
With the winds you chase in a valiant race,
Looping, swooping, where mountains are grouping,
Hailing them comrades, in place of people.
Oh! vast is the rapture the birdman knows,
As into the ether he mounts and goes.
He is over the sphere of human fear;
He has come into touch with things supernal.
At each man's gate death stands await;
And dying, flying, were better than lying
In sick-beds, crying for life eternal,
Better to fly half-way to God
Than to burrow too long like a worm in the sod.
poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Related quotes
Flying
Forever is ending
But you see a deer
Love isn't bending
It's gone with the beer
And I know that I am feeling better
Mary wants to love me so I'll let her
Chains and the irons
Have fallen off of me
I am much much lighter
Everyone can see
And I know that I am feeling better
Suzi wants to love me so I'll let her
I'm flying
I'm flying
Look at me
I'm flying
I'm flying higher than ever before
Ain't lying
No crying
Look at me
I'm flying
I'm flying higher than ever before
Singing so loudly
I'm drowning out the birds
Singing nothing special
Just any happy words
And I know that I'm feeling better
Sally wants to love me so I'll let her
I'm flying
I'm flying
Look at me
I'm flying
I'm flying higher than ever before
Ain't lying
No crying
Look at me
I'm flying
I'm flying higher than ever before
I'm gliding
I'm soaring
I'm riding
I'm sweeping
I'm flying high
I'm flying
And I know that I am feeling better
Mary wants to love me so I'll let her
I'm flying
I'm flying
Look at me
I'm flying
I'm flying higher than ever before
Ain't lying
No crying
Look at me
I'm flying
I'm flying higher than ever before
I'm flying
I'm flying
Look at me
I'm flying
I'm flying higher than ever before
Ain't lying
No crying
Look at me
I'm flying
I'm flying higher than ever before
I'm flying
I'm flying
Look at me
I'm flying
I'm flying higher than ever before
song performed by by Rick Springfield
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Like An Ocean
(per andreasson/ pernilla emme)
Producer for bonnie: jimmy smyth
Ocean...ocean...
In the darkness of nowhere
Theres nothing at all
And I feel like Ive been here too long
Shadows and teardrops fading away
And my heart is crying for love
Far from those moments
When my eyes were still closed
And my heartbeat was longing for more
Way over mountains, higher than high
I could feel the breeze from below
Like an ocean...
Like an ocean...
Now tell me your secrets
Come closer and whisper
I feel like Ive seen you before
Theres no more illusions
No more escapes
Cause Im tired of asking for more
Seems like a lifetime fading away
And Im lost in an ocean of love
Im reaching and holding onto my dreams
Cause Im not alone anymore
Like an ocean...
Way over mountains higher than high
Like an ocean...
Way over mountains higher than high
Like an ocean...
Way over mountains higher than high
Like an ocean...
Way over mountains higher than high
Spoken:
Far from those moments
When my eyes were still closed
Way over mountains
Higher than high
I could feel the breeze from below
Its like an ocean, ocean...heeeyehhh
Like an ocean...
Way over mountains higher than high
Like an ocean...
Way over mountains higher than high
Like an ocean...
Way over mountains higher than high
Like an ocean...
Way over mountains higher than high
Repeat & fade
song performed by by Bonnie Tyler
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Time Is Not Our Cage (Gabry Ponte Power Cut)
We are flying
and we're flying high till the end
We are men without an age
Time is not out cage
and forever we go on
We are flying
and we're flying high till the end
We are men without an age
Time is not out cage
Born to be forever young
Children of eternity
Always searching for a faster race
Defeating what time wants to be
There's no king
In this place
Like a star that belongs to the sky
And the times are our names in your mind
Our souls are the wings as we fly
Against time
We are flying
and we're flying high till the end
We are men without an age
Time is not out cage
and forever we go on
We are flying
and we're flying high till the end
We are men without an age
Time is not out cage
Born to be forever young
Just like an old song that's playing a tune
That revives what seems lost in the past
With dignity fighting for whom
In a way
Wants to last
Like a friendship of 10 years ago
That is frozen inside of a picture
That tomorrow can cancel and go
Against time
We are flying
and we're flying high till the end
We are men without an age
Time is not out cage
and forever we go on
We are flying
and we're flying high till the end
We are men without an age
Time is not out cage
born to be forever young
Free as a soul is
Far beyond all the boundries of time
Its you mark that lives on
We are flying
and we're flying high till the end
We are men without an age
Time is not out cage
and forever we go on
We are flying
and we're flying high till the end
We are men without an age
Time is not out cage
born to be forever young
song performed by by Eiffel 65
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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How Long
When you look into a childs face
And youre seeing the human race
And the endless possibilities there
Where so much can come true
And you think of the beautiful things
A child can do
How long -- would the child survive
How long -- if it was up to you
When you think about the money spent
On defense by a government
And the weapons of destruction weve built
Were so sure that we need
And you think of the millions and millions
That money could feed
How long -- can you hear someone crying
How long -- can you hear someone dying
Before you ask yourself why?
And how long will we hear people speaking
About missiles for peace
And just let it go by
How long will they tell us these weapons
Are keeping us free
Thats a lie
If you saw it from a satellite
With its green and its blue and white
The beauty of the curve of the earth
And its oceans below
You might think it was paradise
If you didnt know
You might think that its turning
But its turning so slow
How long -- can you hear someone crying
How long -- can you hear someone dying
Before you ask yourself why?
And how long will it be till weve turned
To the tasks and the skills
That well have to have learned
If were going to find our place in the future
And have something to offer
Where this planets concerned
How long?
song performed by by Jackson Browne
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Speed Your Love To Me
I couldnt sleep a wink last night
Id love to hold on
Love to see the fires in motion
Love to feel a free world turn tonight
Run till we come, until we be
Speed your love to me
Run till we come, until we be
Speed your love
Run till we come, until we be
Speed your love to me
She would like to make a wish
Twenty fourth cannot be this
He moved at the speed of light
Through the day and through the night
Fire from the flame of youth
Fire
Run till we come, until we be
Speed your love to me
Just my imagination, just my imagination
You go to my head, you go to my head
With the flames that go higher and higher
And higher and higher and higher and higher
Over and over to me, speeds your love
I couldnt sleep a wink last night
Id love to hold on
Love to see the fires in motion
Id love to feel a free world turn tonight
Run till we come, until we be
Speed your love to me
Just my imagination, just my imagination
You go to my head, you go to my head
With the flames that go higher and higher
And higher and higher and higher and higher
Over and over to me, speeds your love
Run till we come, until we be
Speed your love
You go to my head, you go to my head
You go to my head, over me.
Higher and higher, higher and higher
All across to me
Words & music : james kerr, charlie burchill, mel gaynor, derek forbes, michael macneil (c) emi publishing ltd reproduced without permission
song performed by by Simple Minds
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Rise Up
rise up and fly like eagles
rise up through the sky
we've got to rise up
over higher mountains
rise up, rise up, rise up
Everybody's come a long long way
such a long way ,to be here today
we're going hard ,giving it all
we've been knocking on wood with our backs to the walls
we've been working every day and night
waiting for the chance for the day to arrive
and now we've all got something to prove
win or lose, there's only one thing to do
We've got to rise up
and fly like eagles
rise up through the sky
you've got to rise up
over higher mountains
rise up, rise up, rise up
Inside the sweat, inside the heat
in each and every heart there's a pounding beat
to do it wrong, to do it right
each of us has put up, one hell of a fight
and as we face the final test
all that we can do is to do our best
and as we're making time stand still
to get to the top you've got to give all you've got
You've got to rise up
and fly like eagles
rise up through the sky
you've got to rise up
over higher mountains
rise up, rise up
Shine a light and let them see
everything you want to be
Shine a light and let them know
you are never letting go
Rise up... win or lose there's only one thing to do
We've got to rise up
and fly like eagles
rise up through the sky
you've got to rise up
over higher mountains
rise up, rise up, rise up
Rise, and fly like eagles
rise up through the sky
you've got to rise up
over higher mountains
rise up, rise up, rise up, rise up,
over higher mountains, rise,
We've got to rise up.
song performed by by Vanessa Amorosi
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Life Is Eternal
(carly simon/teesa gohl)
Ive been doing a lot of thinking
About growing older and moving on
Nobody wants to be told that theyre getting on
For a long, long stay
But just how long and who knows
And how and where my spirit will go
Will it soar like jazz on a saxophone
Or evaporate on a breeze
Wont you tell me please
That life is eternal
And love is immortal
And death is only a horizon
Life is eternal
As we move into the light
And a horizon is nothing
Save the limit of our sight
Save the limit of our sight
Here on earth Im a lost soul
Ever trying to find my way back home
Maybe thats why each new star is born
Expanding heavens room
Eternity in bloom
And will I see you up in that heaven
In all its light will I know youre there
Will we say the things that we never dared
If wishing makes it so
Wont you let me know
That life is eternal
And love is immortal
And death is only a horizon
Life is eternal
As we move into the light
And a horizon is nothing
Save the limit of our sight
Save the limit of our sight
song performed by by Carly Simon
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Take Me Higher
(narada michael walden/s.j.dakota/germaine)
Take me to that place
Higher
Go, hold on
Go
(take me higher)
(take me higher)
In my mind I see the possibilities
When it comes to love there are no boundaries
Do you think that you and I can work it out
Thats what true loves about
Baby we can find an answer if we look inside our hearts
Love will be there waiting for us
Baby we can rise above it if we leave our doubts behind us
We can learn to fly high above us
Theres a place up in the sky
Where the sun is shining
Take me higher
(take me higher)
Theres a place I long to be
Where the birds are flying
Take me higher
(take me higher)
See it on the news, theres trouble eveywhere
Gotta reach out show somebody that you care
It aint good to let the bad news get us down
Lets spread some love around
Even if you want to go there
To a place above the clouds
Got to feel the power of love (power of love)
Baby we can rise above it if we leave our doubts behind
We can learn to fly high above us
Theres a place up in the sky
Where the sun is shining
Take me higher
(take me higher)
Theres a place I long to be
Where the birds are flying
Take me higher
(take me higher)
(repeat)
You gotta reach out
Feel the power of love
Show somebody you care
Take me...
Oh baby
Higher
Take me higher
Theres a place up in the sky
Where the sun is shining
Take me higher
(take me higher)
Theres a place I long to be
Where the birds are flying
Take me higher
(take me higher)
(repeat)
Take me higher
Take me, take me
Take me higher
(take me higher)
(repeat three times)
Theres a place up in the sky
Where the sun is shining
Take me higher
(take me higher)
Theres a place I long to be
I want to go flying
(take me higher)
song performed by by Diana Ross
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Avenging Angel
1 When the last faint red of the day is dead,
2 And the dim, far heaven is lit
3 With the silvern cars
4 Of the orient stars,
5 And the winged winds whimper and flit;
6 Then I rise through the dome of my aerodrome,
7 Like a giant eagle in flight;
8 And I take my place
9 In the vengeful race
10 With the sinister fleets of night.
11 As I rise and rise in the cloudy skies,
12 No sound in the silence is heard,
13 Save the lonesome whirr
14 Of my engine's purr,
15 Like the wings of a monster bird.
16 And naught is seen save the vault, serene,
17 Of the vasty realms of night,
18 That vanish, aloof,
19 To eternity's roof,
20 As I mount in my ominous flight.
21 And I float and pause in the fleecy gauze,
22 Like a bird in a nest of down;
23 While 'neath me in deeps
24 Of blackness, sleeps
25 The far, vast London town.
26 But I am not here, like a silvern sphere,
27 To glory the deeps of space,
28 But a sentinel, I,
29 In this tower of the sky,
30 Scanning the dim deep's face.
31 For, sudden, afar, like a luminous star,
32 Or a golden horn of the moon,
33 Or a yellow leaf
34 Of the forest's grief,
35 When the autumn winds are atune;
36 There is borne on my sight, down the spaces of night,
37 By the engines of evilment sped,
38 That wonderful, rare,
39 Vast ship of the air,
40 Beautiful, ominous, dread.
41 One instant she floats, most magic of boats,
42 Illusive, implacable, there;
43 Throned angel of ill,
44 On her crystal-built hill,
45 O'er a people's defenceless despair.
46 Then sudden, I rise, like a bolt through the skies,
47 To the very dim roofs of the world;
48 Till down in the grey,
49 I see my grim prey,
50 Like a pallid gold leaf, uncurled.
51 And I hover and swing, until swiftly I spring,
52 And drop like a falling star;
53 And again and again,
54 My death-dealing rain,
55 Hurl to the deeps afar.
56 Then I hover and listen, till I see the far glisten
57 Of a flame-flash blanching the night;
58 And I know that my hate,
59 That has lain in wait,
60 Has won in the grim air-fight.
61 Then I curve and slant, while my engines pant,
62 And the wings of my great bird tame;
63 While the sinister Hun,
64 In his ill, undone,
65 Goes out in a blinding flame.
poem by William Wilfred Campbell
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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I've Heard the Rushing
I’ve heard the rushing of mountain torrents, gushing
Down through the rocks, in a cataract of spray,
Onward to the ocean;
Swift seemed their motion,
Till, lost in the desert, they dwindled away.
I’ve learnt the story of all human glory,
I’ve felt high resolves growing weaker every day,
Till cares, springing round me,
With creeping tendrils bound me,
And all I once hoped for was wearing fast away.
I’ve seen the river rolling on for ever,
Silent and strong, without tumult or display.
In the desert arid,
Its waters never tarried,
Till far out at sea we still found them on their way.
Now no more weary we faint in deserts dreary,
Toiling alone till the closing of the day;
All now is righted,
Our souls flow on united,
Till the years and their sorrows have all died away.
poem by James Clerk Maxwell
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Mid-Forest Fear
SHE is standing at the gate,
Tall and sweet,
And although the hour be late
She will greet
Me, her lover,
Smiling over
Absent mind and tardy feet.
‘Rest,’ I’ll say to her, ‘and more rest,’
As she wraps her love around me,
And I’ll tell her of the forest,
Of the strange, fear-haunted forest
Where the fleshless beings found me.
For I trod a rock-strewn rude way
Thinking only of my lover,
When the moonlight on the woodway,
Made a weird-way of the woodway,
And a place where demons hover.
For the leaves that had been sleeping
On the sodden soil-bed lying,
Look a motion and ’gan creeping,
Like a thousand small feet creeping,
And there rose a distant sighing.
Why the trees did droop their tresses,
Weeping leaves for something under,
And what bode in dim recesses,
Feline-lurked in dim recesses,
Paled my cheeks and heart to ponder.
Had I feet I would have hurried,
But the moonlit forest chained me,
Soul and body grasped and worried,
With frost-fingers gripped and worried,
Till, half-stayed, my hurt heart pained me.…
‘Rest,’ I’ll say, ‘my Love, and more rest;
Things unseen have life and motion
And they haunt the moonlit forest—
Soul-affronting haunt the forest,
And men meet them on the ocean.’
She will look so grave and kind,
Saying ‘Rest—
Rest is here for heart and mind
On this breast—
Put aside all
Fancies idle,
I will shield you—Love is best.’
poem by Roderic Quinn
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Eagle night
Eagle night and seen by sea
A distant call, in sonnet key
In any moment, place or time
A distant call is sent from high
Eagle night, i swear I’ve sawn
Eagle flight with salty winds
By the pinnacle of water and land
Where sea winds crash and struggle the sand
Call again, from a place that’s near
Always close, so one can hear
Or so can be thought the truth of such things
Resonate from eagle wings
Never foreboding the loss of a call
Never shorn for a sighting once more
The discontent of the mind is evaded
And all the wanting of life unladen
The call, one call, one sight, any wind
Reminds the heart of the sweetest thing
Deep remnants of a time unkempt
And narrowing from this lively nest
Illusioned by dreams of taste and touch
But grasped in song by night eagle clutch
poem by Julia Grandi
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Villanelle: The Joys of Spring
The Sun wakes the earth, and the birds sing
songs of joy and beauty that strike me with suspense and awe:
Spring fills me with delight about what it will bring.
They rise up in the air, they are the king
of the skies, higher and higher they soar.
O! The joys of Spring.
But when the rain falls, it doesn't matter, for the things
in Spring that are here give me warmth; I don't care that rain will pour:
Spring fills me with delight about what it will bring.
And now I see you, like a new-born lamb; I'm gaping
at your beauty, your whole being, and so much more.
O! The joys of Spring!
Spring, as harbinger of life and hoping,
entices all with possibilities, vivacity, and so much more.
Spring fills me with delight about what it will bring.
So now I offer you my ring,
spend our life like an eternal Spring; I will always keep you in my heart's store:
Spring fills me with delight about what it will bring:
O! The joys of Spring!
poem by Dan Pyzer Knapp
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Psalm CXLVIII
Come, oh! come, with sacred lays,
Let us sound th' Almighty's praise;
Hither bring in true concent,
Heart, and voice, and instrument.
Let the orpharion sweet,
With the harp and viol meet:
To your voices tune the lute:
Let not tongue nor string be mute;
Nor a creature dumb be found,
That hath cither voice or sound.
Let such things as do not live,
In still music praises give:
Lowly pipe, ye worms that creep
On the earth or in the deep;
Loud aloft your voices strain,
Beasts and monsters of the main,
Birds, your warbling treble sing;
Clouds, your peals of thunder ring;
Sun and moon exalted higher,
And you, stars, augment the choir.
Come, ye sons of human race,
In this chorus take your place,
And amid this mortal throng,
Be you masters of the song.
Angels and celestial powers,
Be the noblest tenor yours.
Let, in praise of God, the sound
Run a never-ending round;
That our holy hymn may be
Everlasting, as is He.
From the earth's vast hollow womb,
Music's deepest bass shall come.
Sea and floods, from shore to shore,
Shall the counter-tenor roar.
To this concert, when we sing,
Whistling winds, your descant bring:
Which may bear the sound above,
Where the orb of fire doth move;
And so climb from sphere to sphere,
Till our song th' Almighty hear.
So shall He from heaven's high tower
On the earth His blessing shower;
All this huge wide orb we see,
Shall one choir, one temple be;
There our voices we will rear,
Till we fill it everywhere:
And enforce the fiends that dwell
In the air to sink to hell.
Then, oh! come, with sacred lays,
Let us sound th' Almighty's praise.
poem by George Wither
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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People's Lying
People's lying here, people's lying there
People's lying everywhere
People's dying here, people's dying there
People's dying everywhere
People's dying 'cos people's lying
People's crying 'cos people's lying
People's denying that they is lying
No-one's defying all this lying
Even people who's dying still keep lying
So more people's crying
More people's dying
'Cos people's only know lying
(Sydney, Australia - 2007)
poem by Alessandra Liverani
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Eagles And Horses
This song appears on five albums, and was first released on the flower that shattered the stone album. it has also appeared on the stonehaven sunrise, a portrait and the john denver collection -
Me home, country roads albums. a live version also appears on the wildlife concert album.
Horses are creatures who worship the earth
As they gallop on feet of ivory
Constrained by the wonder of dying and birth
The horses still run, they are free
My body is merely the shell of my soul
But the flesh must be given its due
Like a pony that carries its rider back home
Like an old friend that's tried and been true
I had a vision of eagles and horses
High on a ridge in a race with the wind
Going higher and higher and faster and faster
On eagles and horses i'm flying again
Eagles inhabit the heavenly heights
They know neither limit nor bound
They're the guardian angels of darkness and light
They see all and hear every sound
My spirit will never be broken or caught
For the soul is a free-flowing thing
Like an eagle that needs neither comfort nor thought
To rise up on glorious wings
I had a vision of eagles and horses
High on a ridge in a race with the wind
Going higher and higher and faster and faster
On eagles and horses i'm flying again
My body is merely the shell of my soul
But the flesh must be given its due
Like a pony that carries its master back home
Like an old that's tried and been true
My spirit will never be broken or caught
For the soul is a free-flowing thing
Like an eagle that needs neither comfort nor thought
To rise up on glorious wings
I had a vision of eagles and horses
High on a ridge in a race with the wind
Going higher and higher and faster and faster
On eagles and horses i'm flying again
Words and music by john denver and joe henry
song performed by by John Denver
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Eagles & Horses
This song appears on five albums, and was first released on the flower that shattered the stone album. it has also appeared on the stonehaven sunrise, a portrait and the john denver collection -
Me home, country roads albums. a live version also appears on the wildlife concert album.
Horses are creatures who worship the earth
As they gallop on feet of ivory
Constrained by the wonder of dying and birth
The horses still run, they are free
My body is merely the shell of my soul
But the flesh must be given its due
Like a pony that carries its rider back home
Like an old friend thats tried and been true
I had a vision of eagles and horses
High on a ridge in a race with the wind
Going higher and higher and faster and faster
On eagles and horses Im flying again
Eagles inhabit the heavenly heights
They know neither limit nor bound
Theyre the guardian angels of darkness and light
They see all and hear every sound
My spirit will never be broken or caught
For the soul is a free-flowing thing
Like an eagle that needs neither comfort nor thought
To rise up on glorious wings
I had a vision of eagles and horses
High on a ridge in a race with the wind
Going higher and higher and faster and faster
On eagles and horses Im flying again
My body is merely the shell of my soul
But the flesh must be given its due
Like a pony that carries its master back home
Like an old thats tried and been true
My spirit will never be broken or caught
For the soul is a free-flowing thing
Like an eagle that needs neither comfort nor thought
To rise up on glorious wings
I had a vision of eagles and horses
High on a ridge in a race with the wind
Going higher and higher and faster and faster
On eagles and horses Im flying again
Words and music by john denver and joe henry
song performed by by John Denver
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Hero & The Madman
The hero he rode a white horse
Across the desert to where his woman was
Hed been riding for four days
When he saw the tower where she was locked
In the moonlight he left his old steed
Near the drawbridge that he crossed
And by way of a rope ladder
He tip-toed to where his woman was
If I recall youre the actor
Who followed the stars
Searching for
The lost city of mars
Hoping time would heal the scars
Knowing fate held no bars
Are you the one
That I think you are?
Are you the hero or are you the madman?
The madman climbed
The steeple spire
Go higher said the crowd
From down below
But...the worlds on fire cried the madman
From the steeple spire
Youre a liar cried the crown
From down below
The madman climbed the steeple spire
And let a crystal ball tear
Fall on the crown
From down below
If I recall youre the actor
Who took to the stage
Set the world ablaze
With your anger and your rage
With every new leaf
You turned and wrote a new page
Cleverly concealing
Your real age
Those that knew you
Were always quite amazed
Are you the one
Who can take this praise?
Are you the hero or are you the madman?
Youre the only one
Who can save us
Said the wizard
Or all is lost
song performed by by Thin Lizzy
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A Fable
Some cawing Crows, a hooting Owl,
A Hawk, a Canary, an old Marsh-Fowl,
One day all meet together
To hold a caucus and settle the fate
Of a certain bird (without a mate),
A bird of another feather.
'My friends,' said the Owl, with a look most wise,
'The Eagle is soaring too near the skies,
In a way that is quite improper;
Yet the world is praising her, so I'm told,
And I think her actions have grown so bold
That some of us ought to stop her.'
'I have heard it said,' quoth Hawk, with a sigh,
'That young lambs died at the glance of her eye,
And I wholly scorn and despise her.
This, and more, I am told they say,
And I think that the only proper way
Is never to recognize her.'
'I am quite convinced,' said Crow, with a caw,
'That the Eagle minds no moral law,
She's a most unruly creature.'
'She's an ugly thing,' piped Canary Bird;
'Some call her handsome—it's so absurd—
She hasn't a decent feature.'
Then the old Marsh-Hen went hopping about,
She said she was sure—she hadn't a doubt—
Of the truth of each bird's story:
And she thought it a duty to stop her flight,
To pull her down from her lofty height,
And take the gilt from her glory.
But, lo! from a peak on the mountain grand
That looks out over the smiling land
And over the mighty ocean,
The Eagle is spreading her splendid wings—
She rises, rises, and upward swings,
With a slow, majestic motion.
Up in the blue of God's own skies,
With a cry of rapture, away she flies,
Close to the Great Eternal:
She sweeps the world with her piercing sight;
Her soul is filled with the infinite
And the joy of things supernal.
Thus rise forever the chosen of God,
The genius-crowned or the power-shod,
Over the dust-world sailing;
And back, like splinters blown by the winds,
Must fall the missiles of silly minds,
Useless and unavailing.
poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Afar in the Desert
Afar in the Desert I love to ride,
With the silent Bush-boy alone by my side:
When the sorrows of life the soul o'ercast,
And, sick of the Present, I cling to the Past;
When the eye is suffused with regretful tears,
From the fond recollections of former years;
And shadows of things that have long since fled
Flit over the brain, like the ghosts of the dead:
Bright visions of glory -- that vanish too soon;
Day-dreams -- that departed ere manhood's noon;
Attachments -- by fate or by falsehood reft;
Companions of early days -- lost or left;
And my Native Land -- whose magical name
Thrills to the heart like electric flame;
The home of my childhood; the haunts of my prime;
All the passions and scenes of that rapturous time
When the feelings were young and the world was new,
Like the fresh bowers of Eden unfolding to view;
All -- all now forsaken -- forgotten -- foregone!
And I -- a lone exile remembered of none --
My high aims abandoned, -- my good acts undone, --
-- Aweary of all that is under the sun, --
With that sadness of heart which no stranger may scan,
I fly to the Desert afar from man!
Afar in the Desert I love to ride,
With the silent Bush-boy alone by my side:
When the wild turmoil of this wearisome life,
With its scenes of oppression, corruption, and strife --
The proud man's frown, and the base man's fear, --
The scorner's laugh, and the sufferer's tear --
And malice, and meanness, and falsehood, and folly,
Dispose me to musing and dark melancholy;
When my bosom is full, and my thoughts are high,
And my soul is sick with the bondman's sigh --
Oh! then there is freedom, and joy, and pride,
Afar in the Desert alone to ride!
There is rapture to vault on the champing steed,
And to bound away with the eagle's speed,
With the death-fraught firelock in my hand --
The only law of the Desert Land!
Afar in the Desert I love to ride,
With the silent Bush-boy alone by my side:
Away -- away from the dwellings of men,
By the wild deer's haunt, by the buffalo's glen;
By valleys remote where the oribi plays,
Where the gnu, the gazelle, and the hartèbeest graze,
And the kùdù and eland unhunted recline
By the skirts of grey forests o'erhung with wild-vine;
Where the elephant browses at peace in his wood,
And the river-horse gambols unscared in the flood,
And the mighty rhinoceros wallows at will
In the fen where the wild-ass is drinking his fill.
Afar in the Desert I love to ride,
With the silent Bush-boy alone by my side:
O'er the brown Karroo, where the bleating cry
Of the springbok's fawn sounds plaintively;
And the timorous quagga's shrill whistling neigh
Is heard by the fountain at twilight grey;
Where the zebra wantonly tosses his mane,
With wild hoof scouring the desolate plain;
And the fleet-footed ostrich over the waste
Speeds like a horseman who travels in haste,
Hying away to the home of her rest,
Where she and her mate have scooped their nest,
Far hid from the pitiless plunderer's view
In the pathless depths of the parched Karroo.
Afar in the Desert I love to ride,
With the silent Bush-boy alone by my side:
Away -- away -- in the Wilderness vast,
Where the White Man's foot hath never passed,
And the quivered Coránna or Bechuán
Hath rarely crossed with his roving clan:
A region of emptiness, howling and drear,
Which Man hath abandoned from famine and fear;
Which the snake and the lizard inhabit alone,
With the twilight bat from the yawning stone;
Where grass, nor herb, nor shrub takes root,
Save poisonous thorns that pierce the foot;
And the bitter-melon, for food and drink,
Is the pilgrim's fare by the salt lake's brink:
A region of drought, where no river glides,
Nor rippling brook with osiered sides;
Where sedgy pool, nor bubbling fount,
Nor tree, nor cloud, nor misty mount,
Appears, to refresh the aching eye:
But the barren earth, and the burning sky,
And the black horizon, round and round,
Spread -- void of living sight or sound.
And here, while the night-winds round me sigh,
And the stars burn bright in the midnight sky,
As I sit apart by the desert stone,
Like Elijah at Horeb's cave alone,
'A still small voice' comes through the wild
(Like a Father consoling his fretful Child),
Which banishes bitterness, wrath, and fear, --
Saying -- MAN IS DISTANT, BUT GOD IS NEAR!
poem by Thomas Pringle
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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