Lindbergh: A Ballad by Alxeander Laing

Lindbergh: A Ballad

by Alexander Laing

The lamp of valor flickered low;

The Viking banners all were furled

And put away where shadows go

When nightfall wanders in the world.

With wary eyes and voices hushed

We rendered our unlovely parts.

A god of yellow metal crushed

The hero-hunger in our hearts.

We wrote a tale of wasted days,

Successes that were not success.

What we had won in little ways

We spent for little, or for less...

And then the silver monoplane,

Humming an iron monotone,

Leaped; and a glory filled the brain:

“Lindbergh, the eagle, flies alone.”

A hush of wonder stilled the air.

Cold men forgot their scorn, and prayed

Some half-remembered wisp of prayer.

We feared for him, the unafraid.

No news, until, on every hand

The word rang like a sudden bell:

Between the crags of Newfoundland

He waved a hemisphere farewell.

Fog laid its icy film of death

Along the silver, cambered wings.

The shifting ocean snarled beneath

In promise of the end of things.

The ocean lost, as onward hurled

The Spirit, lonely and elate.

Dawn swept across the bending world

To meet them off the Irish gate.

Ireland, the Continent, and night

Once more; and then a distant spark

Glimmered and grew. The signal light

That marks Le Bourget split the dark.

“I am Charles Lindbergh.” Thus he taught

Humility and fearlessness,

And spoke a name that could be bought

For science, but for nothing less.

A little while he talked with kings;

He walked with crowds a little while

Before he buckled on his wings,

Lifting the world’s heart with a smile.

Will we remember, as we settle

Back to our littleness again:

We, who are strangers to his mettle

That grows too seldom among men?

Whatever memory may do, 

One proud truth has been written plain

For men in every age to view:

That valor never is in vain.

Though we forget, before we die,

The steady courage of his face,

His leap across the curving sky

Has changed the story of the race.

In valor’s trophied corridors

Immutable the glory stands

With banners of forgotten wars

That flamed through unremembered lands.