"Kotkanlento : Viisilauluinen runoelma by V. Arti" is a lyrical narrative poem cycle written in the early 20th century. Composed as five “songs,” it traces a metaphysical flight of an eagle from a mountain toward the stars, meeting clouds, winds, northern lights, and thunder, and reflects on freedom, striving, moral law, and the limits of knowledge. The poem begins with the eagle rising in autumn light, tempted by the stars’ promise and debating fear, fate, and mortality. In the cloud-realm, moonlit spirits invite it to dissolve into their easy brightness, but it continues upward. Higher still, the four winds sing rival doctrines—harsh vigilance, shared life and love, command and dominion, reason and law—while the eagle longs for a peace beyond strife. The northern lights become a tourney of swords teaching that steadiness, swiftness, straightness, and aiming above the fray win the day; the eagle slips through unharmed. In the final trial, thunder-giant faces encircle it, lightning speaking riddling counsels the eagle must grasp; after learning that one who is blinded must be led by heaven, it refuses a blind ascent, folds its wings, and plunges back toward the mountain, as the distant stars keep their secret. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
These books are free to read. Each is in the public domain in the United States; check your own country's rules before you copy or share one.
