University of Virginia Library

SUN, MOON AND STARS

I
THE SUN

Source, strength and splendour of the dawn and day;
Lord of the noon and of the afternoon;
Soul of the sunset; master of the moon;—
We are thy creatures! ... who shall pass away
From grief and joy, from labour and love and play,—
The will that strives, the hopes that weary and swoon:—
For these are life and life shall leave us soon—
Thy life incarnate in our mortal clay.
Yet is it conscious of some nobler end,
In us transfigured, than to live and die
Blind and enslaved: in ways unknown to thee,
In free communion with a lover or friend,
In thought's perfection, we exemplify
What more than life thy life has come to be!

II
THE MOON

Moon of our nights of youth, grave ardent gold
Majestic mistress of the yearning sea;
Moon of our young love's blinding ecstasy;
Moon of mused secrets that no tongue has told;—
Moon of our first fine midnights, pure and cold, ...
When, with the stir of God's nativity
Within us, we discerned the Mystery
And guessed what death might give and life withhold!
Moon of impassioned vigil in the high
Spacious tranquillities of earth and sky,
As, then, we saw thy light in darkness move
Like guidance on the immeasurable seas,
So, now, we see the full-orbed moon of love
Move on the soul's more vast immensities! ...

III
THE STARS

They saw the self-same stars we see to-night
At Ur, Nippur, Mosul and Ispahan,
And where the Tigris and Euphrates ran,
And where Bagdad displayed the Caliph's might.
The Jew, the swart Arabian robed in white,
The Kurd, the camel and the caravan
Passed on their way from Cairo to Sistan,
Led thro' the trackless deserts by their light.
They saw the self-same stars as we:—perchance
They felt as we the self-same rapt surmise
Of life and death! ... until they saw as we,—
Thrilled with the soul's supreme significance,—
Strange constellations dawn within their eyes,
Wrought on the shadow of eternity! ...