William Wordsworth

On Revisiting Dunolly Castle

THE CAPTIVE bird was gone;—to cliff or moor
Perchance had flown, delivered by the storm;
Or he had pined, and sunk to feed the worm:
Him found we not; but, climbing a tall tower,
There saw, impaved with rude fidelity
Of art mosaic, in a roofless floor,
An eagle with stretched wings, but beamless eye,—
An eagle that could neither wail nor soar.
Effigy of the vanished, (shall I dare
To call thee so?) or symbol of fierce deeds
And of the towering courage which past times
Rejoiced in, take, whate’er thou be, a share,
Not undeserved, of the memorial rhymes
That animate my way where’er it leads!