HINT FROM THE MOUNTAINS
FOR CERTAIN POLITICAL PRETENDERS
HINT FROM THE MOUNTAINS
“WHO but hails the sight with pleasure When the wings of genius rise, Their ability to measure With great enterprise; But in man was ne’er such daring As yon Hawk exhibits, pairing His brave spirit with the war in The stormy skies! “Mark him, how his power he uses, Lays it by, at will resumes! 10 Mark, ere for his haunt he chooses Clouds and utter glooms! There, he wheels in downward mazes; Sunward now his flight he raises, Catches fire, as seems, and blazes With uninjured plumes!”– ANSWER “Stranger, ’tis no act of courage Which aloft thou dost discern; No bold ‘bird’ gone forth to forage ‘Mid the tempest stern; 20 But such mockery as the nations See, when public perturbations Lift men from their native stations Like yon TUFT OF FERN; “Such it is; the aspiring creature Soaring on undaunted wing, (So you fancied) is by nature A dull helpless thing, Dry and withered, light and yellow;– ‘That’ to be the tempest’s fellow! 30 Wait–and you shall see how hollow Its endeavouring!” 1817.