Last modified: 2016-03-19 by peter hans van den muijzenberg
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![[white with the word EXCELSIOR]](../images/f/fic_exel.gif)
image by Eugene Ipavec, 12 September 2006, based on a period illustration.
A flag appears in a rather famous poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:
The shades of night were falling fast,
As through an Alpine village passed
A youth, who bore, 'mid snow and ice,
A banner with the strange device,
Excelsior!
The poem is an allegory about maintaining fixity of purpose while aiming
for a lofty goal, "excelsior" being Latin for "ever higher," (and also
the state motto of New York). A period illustration is shown in an article on Wikipedia.
Eugene Ipavec, 12 September 2006