Live dully; guarding well the coward flesh
Safe in well-trodden paths, through easy years,
Barren of fire and splendour; in their mesh
Catching no glint of glory; this were wisdom.
The Earthworm knows not risk of upper spheres!
But, ah! the flashing moment in the sun!
The dragon-fly that shames all sober things!
Lark-song that ceased not till the heights were won.
Flesh clothed with flame, that burnt its fleshly barriers
And dared the royal challenge danger flings.
So these quick souls who, while we breathless stare,
Wave to their plodding fellows, and are gone.
Give us new paths on land and sea and air,
Give us unbounded worlds to dream upon.
Lyric or laurel-- it were poor repayment.
Chafed with Earth's bounds, have they flown further on?
First published in The Courier-Mail, 18 November 1935
Note: The subject of this poem is the Australian aviator Charles Kingsford Smith (1897-1935) who was reported missing over the sea to the north of Darwin on 8 November 1935.
