Philip Henry Savage

1868-1899 / the United States

The Scream Of The Tern

The scream of the tern in the roar of the waters
Will sound when the tumult of nature is o'er;
When the garden of earth is a home for the daughters
Of Eve, and when Pan is remembered no more.

White-winged, he appears! Dark, erratic, uneven,
A figure on earth of the stars in the sky;
Of high disarray and disorder in heaven,
Where the Galaxy strikes with dismay on the eye!

Where freak and caprice build a wild conflagration,
Where Chaos is king over torrents of stars;
Who scatters the earth in a blind indignation,
And systems are sped in interminate wars.

Then the children of Pan in that day will come singing,
In fierceness, of him who has set in the spheres
Dismay; and along the salt sea-limits ringing,
The scream of the tern striking wild on their ears.
105 Total read