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The sleep grew heavy, amid the noise
(Like that which traffic on iron employs),
That might have wakened one, if it broke
Upon him in stillness:—like a stroke,
That very stillness the sleeper woke.
The train had halted: the storm, at least
For some few minutes, at last had ceased;
There through the window serene and high,
The great blue citadel of the sky,
Its ceiling showed: and stars I knew
So well! were glimmering to the view.
How oft I had studied, with happy brow,
Those orbs of splendor, with some who now,
Cold trammels of earth given back to her,
And souls with freedom's new life astir,
Perchance, in loftily-builded cars,
Are traveling 'mongst those selfsame stars!
Away north-east, in the goat-herd's camp,
Capella has trimmed his cold white lamp;
Toward south-lands farther the fond eye sees
The bevy of laughing Pleiades,
And following them at a fervid pace,
Aldebaran carries his blushing face.
Then hangs from his belt with star-gems stored,
Orion's diamond-hilted sword:
These all, as if proud of their Bible names,
Lit that cold night with flickering flames.
Now, coming, higher and yet more high,
Gleamed Sirius—king of the farther sky.
O heart that I loved, and who loved that star,
You told me once, that when days were done
That held us in worlds where mortals are,
You would meet me in yonder midnight sun!
More quickly you did your work than I—
The tasks of my days are incomplete;
But you will be waiting bye and bye,
Where once we promised again to meet!
(Like that which traffic on iron employs),
That might have wakened one, if it broke
Upon him in stillness:—like a stroke,
That very stillness the sleeper woke.
The train had halted: the storm, at least
For some few minutes, at last had ceased;
There through the window serene and high,
The great blue citadel of the sky,
Its ceiling showed: and stars I knew
So well! were glimmering to the view.
How oft I had studied, with happy brow,
Those orbs of splendor, with some who now,
Cold trammels of earth given back to her,
And souls with freedom's new life astir,
Perchance, in loftily-builded cars,
Are traveling 'mongst those selfsame stars!
Away north-east, in the goat-herd's camp,
Capella has trimmed his cold white lamp;
Toward south-lands farther the fond eye sees
The bevy of laughing Pleiades,
And following them at a fervid pace,
Aldebaran carries his blushing face.
Then hangs from his belt with star-gems stored,
Orion's diamond-hilted sword:
These all, as if proud of their Bible names,
Lit that cold night with flickering flames.
42
Gleamed Sirius—king of the farther sky.
O heart that I loved, and who loved that star,
You told me once, that when days were done
That held us in worlds where mortals are,
You would meet me in yonder midnight sun!
More quickly you did your work than I—
The tasks of my days are incomplete;
But you will be waiting bye and bye,
Where once we promised again to meet!
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