Sea-Hawk
.
The six-foot nest of the sea-hawk,
Almost inaccessible,
Surveys from the headland the lonely, the violent waters.
.
I have driven him off,
Somewhat foolhardily,
And look into the fierce eye of the offspring.
.
It is an eye of fire,
An eye of icy crystal,
A threat of ancient purity,
.
Power of an immense reservoir,
An agate-well of purpose,
Life before man, and maybe after.
.
How many centuries of sight
In this piercing, inhuman perfection
Stretch the gaze off the rocky promontory,
.
To make the mind exalt
At the eye of a sea-hawk,
A blaze of grandeur, permanence of the impersonal.
.
Richard Eberhart
.
.