Explore "Half Fledged" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
I feel the stirrings in me of great things. / New half-fledged thoughts rise up and beat their wings, / And tremble on the margin of their nest, / Then flutter back, and hide within my breast.
Beholding space, they doubt their untried strength. / Beholding men, they fear them. But at length, / Grown all too great and active for the heart / That broods them with such tender mother art, / Forgetting fear, and men, and all, that hour, / Save the impelling consciousness of power / That stirs within them-they shall soar away / Up to the very portals of the Day.
Oh, what exultant rapture thrills me through / When I contemplate all those thoughts may do; / Like snow-white eagles penetrating space, / They may explore full many an unknown place, / And build their nests on mountain heights unseen, / Whereon doth lie that dreamed-of rest serene. / Stay thou a little longer in my breast, / Till my fond heart shall push thee from the nest / Anxious to see thee soar to heights divine- / Oh, beautiful but half-fledged thoughts of mine.