 | Songs of Doubt and Dream (Poems) |  |
273
THE MILKY WAY.
Above me, in solemn skies that clouds have left
A dreamy infinitude of throbbing light,
Faint as diaphanous vapor, it has cleft
With shadowy causeway the blue voids of night.
A dreamy infinitude of throbbing light,
Faint as diaphanous vapor, it has cleft
With shadowy causeway the blue voids of night.
I lift my gaze, by silent reverie won,
And nothing then the aerial fancy mars
That spirits in silver wizardry have spun
Some pale miraculous cobweb through the stars!
And nothing then the aerial fancy mars
That spirits in silver wizardry have spun
Some pale miraculous cobweb through the stars!
But science, on dauntless wings that never close,
The stately mystery like a veil has torn,
And shown us, quivering with deep natal throes,
A terrible embryo of worlds unborn.
The stately mystery like a veil has torn,
And shown us, quivering with deep natal throes,
A terrible embryo of worlds unborn.
Here chaos lurks, in many a wild vague ring,
And laboring spheres rebel from its embrace,
Age after age victoriously to swing
Out through the opaque enormities of space.
And laboring spheres rebel from its embrace,
Age after age victoriously to swing
Out through the opaque enormities of space.
Ah! where sublime these nebulous wreaths hang curled,
May one star wake to being, if one alone,
Fit grandly to be named a perfect world,
Freed from the sin, the agony of our own!
May one star wake to being, if one alone,
Fit grandly to be named a perfect world,
Freed from the sin, the agony of our own!
| Songs of Doubt and Dream (Poems) | |