Eagle over the Hudson River
Sometimes in the fiercest driving storm
of wind and rain or hail or snow
a great eagle will appear over the river
now soaring with steady
and now thrashing wings
always confronting the gale
or perhaps cleaving into it
or at times literally sitting upon it
It’s like reading some first-class
natural tragedy or epic
or hearing martial trumpets
: the splendid bird
enjoys the hubbub
is adjusted and equal to it
finishes it so artistically
his pinions just oscillating
the position of head and neck
his resistless varied flight
now a swirl
now an upward rush
the black clouds driving
and down below
the angry wash
the hiss of rain
the wind’s piping
the bird tacking or jibing
and now for a moment
abandoning himself to the gale
racing with it at such speed
and now resuming control
he comes up against it
lord of the situation and the storm
lord in the midst of it
of power and savage joy
Walt Whitman
From Specimen Days (1882), adapted by John Lyons