"The Daring One"

By Edwin Markham

I would my soul were like the bird   

That dares the vastness undeterred.   

Look, where the bluebird on the bough   

Breaks into rapture even now!   

He sings, tip-top, the tossing elm   

As tho he would a world o’erwhelm.   

Indifferent to the void he rides   

Upon the wind’s eternal tides.

He tosses gladly on the gale,

For well he knows he can not fail—

Knows if the bough breaks, still his wings   

Will bear him upward while he sings!