The shades of night were falling fast,As through an Alpine village passedA youth, who bore, ‘mid snow and ice,A banner with the strange device,            Excelsior! His brow was sad; his eye beneath,Flashed like a falchion from its sheath,And like a silver clarion rungThe accents of that unknown tongue,            Excelsior! In happy homes he saw the lightOf household… Leer más Excelsior: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow