Stephen Vincent Benet

Winged Man

The moon, a sweeping scimitar, dipped in the stormy straits, 
The dawn, a crimson cataract, burst through the eastern gates, 
The cliffs were robed in scarlet, the sands were cinnabar, 
Where first two men spread wings for flight and dared the hawk afar. 

There stands the cunning workman, the crafty past all praise, 
The man who chained the Minotaur, the man who built the Maze. 
His young son is beside him and the boy’s face is a light, 
A light of dawn and wonder and of valor infinite. 

Their great vans beat the cloven air, like eagles they mount up, 
Motes in the wine of morning, specks in a crystal cup, 
And lest his wings should melt apace old Daedalus flies low, 
But Icarus beats up, beats up, he goes where lightnings go. 

He cares no more for warnings, he rushes through the sky, 
Braving the crags of ether, daring the gods on high, 
Black ’gainst the crimson sunset, golden o’er cloudy snows, 
With all Adventure in his heart the first winged man arose. 

Dropping gold, dropping gold, where the mists of morning rolled, 
On he kept his way undaunted, though his breaths were stabs of cold, 
Through the mystery of dawning that no mortal may behold. 

Now he shouts, now he sings in the rapture of his wings, 
And his great heart burns intenser with the strength of his desire, 
As he circles like a swallow, wheeling, flaming, gyre on gyre. 

Gazing straight at the sun, half his pilgrimage is done, 
And he staggers for a moment, hurries on, reels backward, swerves 
In a rain of scattered feathers as he falls in broken curves. 

Icarus, Icarus, though the end is piteous, 
Yet forever, yea, forever we shall see thee rising thus, 
See the first supernal glory, not the ruin hideous. 

You were Man, you who ran farther than our eyes can scan, 
Man absurd, gigantic, eager for impossible Romance, 
Overthrowing all Hell’s legions with one warped and broken lance. 

On the highest steeps of Space he will have his dwelling-place, 
In those far, terrific regions where the cold comes down like Death 
Gleams the red glint of his pinions, smokes the vapor of his breath. 

Floating downward, very clear, still the echoes reach the ear 
Of a little tune he whistles and a little song he sings, 
Mounting, mounting still, triumphant, on his torn and broken wings!