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THE STARS.
Because not of this noisy world—but silent and divine.
Wordsworth.
Wordsworth.
I.
The sleep of sun-beguiled Earth is o'er—
The pearly lids of Day have drawn their screen
Of golden lashes from her lustrous eyes,
And they—albeit she shadows them in dark,
As one about to gaze upon a sight
Of most intolerable brilliancy—
Exult in interchange of glances glad,
With all the orbs of Argus-visioned Heaven!
The pearly lids of Day have drawn their screen
Of golden lashes from her lustrous eyes,
And they—albeit she shadows them in dark,
As one about to gaze upon a sight
Of most intolerable brilliancy—
Exult in interchange of glances glad,
With all the orbs of Argus-visioned Heaven!
On Day's blank skyey page Magician Night
Has traced the figures of his glittering lore,
The gorgeous symbols of his unknown tongue—
The eloquence of a language mystical—
The soul-exciting secrets of a science
Written in tomes which are the Universe,
Lettered in Stars, worded in burning Worlds,
And syllabled in Systems radiance-wrought!
Has traced the figures of his glittering lore,
The gorgeous symbols of his unknown tongue—
The eloquence of a language mystical—
The soul-exciting secrets of a science
Written in tomes which are the Universe,
Lettered in Stars, worded in burning Worlds,
And syllabled in Systems radiance-wrought!
II.
Oh then my Spirit, wake! wake thou, my soul!Shake off the shackles of terrestrial commerce,
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Make strong thy pinions to uphold thy flight
Arduous, through endless multitudes of worlds,
Of moving worlds—unutterable crowds
And families of glory! On the Night,
The black outstretched immense of Darkness, launch
Thy loving ken enraptured—onward soar!
Through the starred Infinite wend thy wondering way
Unwearied—through the labyrinthine maze
Of golden marvels wind—and find no rest,
No pause, no change, no little space unfilled,
No respite from the infinite display
Of infinite might, where the bewildered soul
And Admiration overborne and spent
And dazed Delight may breathe a moment free!
III.
The glancing myriads rise—above, around,
Before—still, still upon the encumbered sight
They throng, they grow; on every side in swarms
Increasing, as by mirrors multiplied
Innumerable! lo, how the glittering shoals
Floating in quick succession through the blue
Vacuity, glide by the trancëd gaze,
Serenely swift, as sweep shores, fields, and trees,
And grazing cattle past a flying bark!
Before—still, still upon the encumbered sight
They throng, they grow; on every side in swarms
Increasing, as by mirrors multiplied
Innumerable! lo, how the glittering shoals
Floating in quick succession through the blue
Vacuity, glide by the trancëd gaze,
Serenely swift, as sweep shores, fields, and trees,
And grazing cattle past a flying bark!
And mark! extant from out the studded Depths,
Of those which nearer strew our airy path
Each as it rapidly approaches seems
A spark—a star—a luminous orb—a globe
Immense, upon its separate aim intent,
And walking lone in silent confidence
Its settled way—ponderous, dilating sphere,
Hanging in solitude!—then shrinking fast,
From globe to luminous orb—to star—to spark,
Again it twinkles in the gemmed expanse,
And in the brilliant masses merging, flies!
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Each as it rapidly approaches seems
A spark—a star—a luminous orb—a globe
Immense, upon its separate aim intent,
And walking lone in silent confidence
Its settled way—ponderous, dilating sphere,
Hanging in solitude!—then shrinking fast,
From globe to luminous orb—to star—to spark,
Again it twinkles in the gemmed expanse,
And in the brilliant masses merging, flies!
IV.
How overpowering now the sense profound
Of shoreless—waveless—still Immensity!
Where now are Earth and Time—and their vain doings,
And where is Old—and New—and Past—and Present—
The Empires—and the Kingdoms—and the Glory?
Oh where is History with her restless years,
Power and Might with all their fluctuations?
The high Adventurings of old Renown—
The glorious visions of the indistinct Eld—
The illustrious things of dark Antiquity—
The ebb and flow of the great Tides of Time?
Where is the noise—the bustle—and the tumult—
The ceaseless clashing of continual Wars—
The exalted bass which follows murmuringly
The ever-rolling billows of Mankind?
The shaking thunders of the big World's march,
And the vast echoes of a thousand ages?—
Of shoreless—waveless—still Immensity!
Where now are Earth and Time—and their vain doings,
And where is Old—and New—and Past—and Present—
The Empires—and the Kingdoms—and the Glory?
Oh where is History with her restless years,
Power and Might with all their fluctuations?
The high Adventurings of old Renown—
The glorious visions of the indistinct Eld—
The illustrious things of dark Antiquity—
The ebb and flow of the great Tides of Time?
Where is the noise—the bustle—and the tumult—
The ceaseless clashing of continual Wars—
The exalted bass which follows murmuringly
The ever-rolling billows of Mankind?
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And the vast echoes of a thousand ages?—
Unheard—unknown—unseen—forgotten—lost—
Gathered, condensed, and dwindled to a spark—
All their high soundings sunk within the Deep
Of the unbounded Silence. The mute Sky
Through its far-rounding, solemn, clear, concave,
Loaded with stars, tells not of such—the void
Speaks not of them—the shadowy Inane
Knows not the fame thereof.—They are absorbed,
Lost in the hushed immense of hollow being—
Whisper-like melting from the mute Abyss,
As melts the hiss of feverish excitation
From off the surface of subsiding waters.
Gathered, condensed, and dwindled to a spark—
All their high soundings sunk within the Deep
Of the unbounded Silence. The mute Sky
Through its far-rounding, solemn, clear, concave,
Loaded with stars, tells not of such—the void
Speaks not of them—the shadowy Inane
Knows not the fame thereof.—They are absorbed,
Lost in the hushed immense of hollow being—
Whisper-like melting from the mute Abyss,
As melts the hiss of feverish excitation
From off the surface of subsiding waters.
V.
But look again across the spangled steepAnd tell us where the Earth thou callest thine?—
Left far behind and lost in crowded space—
Invisible!—But take yon little speck—
Hardly discerned amid the myriad lights
Profuse along the Heavens; what must be
The mites that crawl upon its surface when
Itself is but a point?—Oh is there found
Among them Pride, and big undoubting sense
Of Dignity, and Confidence disturbed
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Oh toil its habitants to gain respect
And adoration on that little mote?
Do they with impotent endeavour strain
To force their fame throughout that tiny speck,
That single grain of sand upon a shore
Boundless far more than Ocean's—all composed
Of atoms each as worthy as itself?—
VI.
Ambition! look you here!
That atomy of light, minutest, faintest—
And by keen gaze alone discernible
Amid innumerable such, contains
A wider space than is bestowed on you
To scheme and fret in!—Kings and Lords of Earth,
Whose sceptered sway extends o'er regions wide,
And far-spread masses of mankind, and strength
Of cities vast—behold! a wider realm
Than you can boast, Kingdoms and nations more
Than worship you, are dwindled to that speck!
There stoop ye to your state—grope for your greatness—
There prick ye for your provinces, and lay
The microscope to your magnificence!
That atomy of light, minutest, faintest—
And by keen gaze alone discernible
Amid innumerable such, contains
A wider space than is bestowed on you
To scheme and fret in!—Kings and Lords of Earth,
Whose sceptered sway extends o'er regions wide,
And far-spread masses of mankind, and strength
Of cities vast—behold! a wider realm
Than you can boast, Kingdoms and nations more
Than worship you, are dwindled to that speck!
There stoop ye to your state—grope for your greatness—
There prick ye for your provinces, and lay
The microscope to your magnificence!
Poets! and ye to whom 'tis more than life
To break the bread of Fame, to feed on Glory,
And drink the draught of Honour—ye who toil
To lift your heads above your fellow worms,
And mar the relish of your real existence,
By revelling in all unreal Entity—
Spurning the joys of ordinary men,
With a dull distaste for all known delight—
Steeled in a strangely-sanguine stoicism,
A wild life-clinging impulse, which forgets
The life around it, phantasy-beguiled—
With a most quenchless ardour, and a deep
Uneasy longing for ye know not what—
Toiling for praise ye will not hear, for love
Ye never can return—for fond remembrance
And glowing reverence in the hearts of crowds,
The fervour of whose yearning adulation,
Will sadly mock your mouldering silentness—
See what a whole World's lasting Praise is pent in!
Be talked of in that speck—there climb to grovel—
Soar from its spaceless point until you crawl
Some hair-breadth higher then its creeping tenants;
Go be the boast, the glory of an atom;—
There vaunt yourselves the voice of viewless crowds,
The Mouth-piece of the hearts of Multitudes,
Whose mighty feelings fume within a speck!
Yes! there be very famous—in a spark
Even by yourselves 'mid thousand others lost
For utter insignificance!
To break the bread of Fame, to feed on Glory,
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To lift your heads above your fellow worms,
And mar the relish of your real existence,
By revelling in all unreal Entity—
Spurning the joys of ordinary men,
With a dull distaste for all known delight—
Steeled in a strangely-sanguine stoicism,
A wild life-clinging impulse, which forgets
The life around it, phantasy-beguiled—
With a most quenchless ardour, and a deep
Uneasy longing for ye know not what—
Toiling for praise ye will not hear, for love
Ye never can return—for fond remembrance
And glowing reverence in the hearts of crowds,
The fervour of whose yearning adulation,
Will sadly mock your mouldering silentness—
See what a whole World's lasting Praise is pent in!
Be talked of in that speck—there climb to grovel—
Soar from its spaceless point until you crawl
Some hair-breadth higher then its creeping tenants;
Go be the boast, the glory of an atom;—
There vaunt yourselves the voice of viewless crowds,
The Mouth-piece of the hearts of Multitudes,
Whose mighty feelings fume within a speck!
Yes! there be very famous—in a spark
Even by yourselves 'mid thousand others lost
For utter insignificance!
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VII.
Oh could we fill the Universe itself,Aye, all which it inherit, with the sense,
The consciousnes of our existence—could we charge
With Soul, our Soul, the endless breadth of space,
And pour the puissance of pervading Mind
Throughout its unimaginable spreadings—
Oh could we load its limitless extent
With all-unchecked diffusion of our presence,
And with the being of our large Renown
Furnish the infinite—until the range
Of rapid-winking stars most coy of commune,
Should tell of us—this—this methinks were meet,
But meet Ambition for a Soul which claims
Deathless Eternity!—Could we unveil
The crowded tracts that lie far far beyond
That canopy of golden gems, perchance
We there might find fit object for the aim
And aspiration of Eternal Spirit—
There haply might discover region fit
For the expatiations unrestrained
Of immaterial Immortality!
VIII.
But here, here in our pointlike nook remote,Our faintly-twinkling speck of light which shows
Like to a grain of sand on boundless sands—
Like to a bubble on a pathless ocean—
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We cannot choose but wait—patient and firm—
Wrapt in the calmness of inemulous hope,
The quiet of a proud Humility;—
Setting minuteness of the visible world,
And littleness of those that tenant it,
Against the majesty of unmeasured Space,
And our own hopes of infinite Existence;—
Deducing from our kinship with the one,
A meek perception of our low estate,
A cold indifference for its puppet pomp,
Its paltry prides and dreams, pleasures and fears,—
And reaping from our yearnings for the other
A lofty consciousness—not free from awe—
Of birth superior, nobler destiny;—
Despising greatness, yet confessing weakness,
And owning meanness, though expecting might—
Thus should we rest—till Death do kindly couch
Our blinded eyes—purge our material ken,—
Infuse the keenness of immortal vision
Into these powerless orbs,—and with the glance,
The lightning glance of mental sight, endow
Our dull perception, till it brightly break
The cooping thraldom of our bonds of clay,
And, strong to pierce the ‘palpable obscure,’
Explore the secret, and embrace the mighty,
Gloat o'er the boundlessness of all that is!
1830 and 1832.
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