74 THE MOUNTAINS 



not caught. Buzzards "move up the 

 sky," with upturned wings, in beautiful 

 spirals of flight, these spirals becoming 

 ever smaller, until the bird is but a small 

 ink-stain on the zenith. 



Here are surprising qualities, surely, 

 but the turkey buzzard's peculiar appeal 

 to the imagination lies, not in these quali- 

 ties as separate items of flight, but in the 

 total beauty of the flight as it appears in 

 utter contrast with the ungainly form and 

 bearing of the bird when not on the wing. 

 In this buzzard contrast we have exactly 

 the aesthetic principle which was creative 

 of such wonderful effects in the oratory 

 of Abraham Lincoln and in the conversa- 

 tion of Madame de Stael. Awkward bulk 

 over against transcendent expression! 



To a Turkey Buzzard in Florida 



O somber bird of name and deed unblessed! 

 Above the sand, I saw thee rise, and sail 

 Aloft, with upturned wings, in spiral flight, 

 Until the merest blur against the blue — 

 That blue ineffable which hints of Italy. 



