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THE COLD LIGHT OF STARS.
“There is no light in Earth or Heaven
But the cold light of stars.”
But the cold light of stars.”
No! tell me not that Nature grieves for human care and pain,
That aught but poor Humanity lifts up its voice to 'plain.
Man, in his misery blinded, thinks for him the sad wind sighs,
That sea and forest with him in his sorrow sympathise;
In stormy skies he sees a gloom congenial to his mind,
And deems the stars with pitying look beam love upon his kind.
That aught but poor Humanity lifts up its voice to 'plain.
Man, in his misery blinded, thinks for him the sad wind sighs,
That sea and forest with him in his sorrow sympathise;
In stormy skies he sees a gloom congenial to his mind,
And deems the stars with pitying look beam love upon his kind.
There's grandeur in the heavenly host, but 'tis a fearful sight,
Encompassing with silent siege the Earth thro' all the night;
The glare of Mars bursts from their eyes, but ne'er a glance of love,
As they pursue with measured pace their marshalled marcl above.
So round the pitiless Hebrews went, with ordered ranks and calm,
The fair but fated city that was shaded by the palm.
Yon very star at last may reach its torch of scathing fire,
To blaze destruction round the globe, a red funereal pyre!
Encompassing with silent siege the Earth thro' all the night;
The glare of Mars bursts from their eyes, but ne'er a glance of love,
As they pursue with measured pace their marshalled marcl above.
So round the pitiless Hebrews went, with ordered ranks and calm,
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Yon very star at last may reach its torch of scathing fire,
To blaze destruction round the globe, a red funereal pyre!
Years piled on years, a pyramid no finite mind can scale,
Have mounted high since finished were their order and their tale;
Yet there they march as calm and cold in their primeval sheen
For all the sin and misery their tearless orbs have seen!
Have mounted high since finished were their order and their tale;
Yet there they march as calm and cold in their primeval sheen
For all the sin and misery their tearless orbs have seen!
Silent and bright as when their light first clove chaotic gloom,
Silent and bright as on the night they first saw Eden's bloom;
And bright when blasted was that bloom for evermore to be,
And silent when unthinking Eve plundered the deadly tree!
Silent when Abel shrieking fell beneath the club of Cain,
Silent when Adam's soul gave forth its sorrow for the slain;
Undimmed when Adam's eyes were wet and Eve's with grief ran o'er,
And bright, tho' hope withdrew its rays from Cain for evermore!
Silent and bright as on the night they first saw Eden's bloom;
And bright when blasted was that bloom for evermore to be,
And silent when unthinking Eve plundered the deadly tree!
Silent when Abel shrieking fell beneath the club of Cain,
Silent when Adam's soul gave forth its sorrow for the slain;
Undimmed when Adam's eyes were wet and Eve's with grief ran o'er,
And bright, tho' hope withdrew its rays from Cain for evermore!
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And so all down the centuries with steady stoic stare,
When tyranny usurped the Earth and battle rent the air;
When empires rose and empires fell, and famine filled the land,
And pestilence and pain and death colleagued—a ghastly band;
When floods did overwhelm the Earth, and Earth herself devour,
With hasty and unnatural man, her children of an hour;
When storm and hail and solid fire, laden with death, were hurled,
And all Pandora's fancied ills let loose on this poor world,
Till now it rolls a lazar-house of woes and wounds and sighs;
—But think not, bending from the blue, that those are mourners' eyes!
When tyranny usurped the Earth and battle rent the air;
When empires rose and empires fell, and famine filled the land,
And pestilence and pain and death colleagued—a ghastly band;
When floods did overwhelm the Earth, and Earth herself devour,
With hasty and unnatural man, her children of an hour;
When storm and hail and solid fire, laden with death, were hurled,
And all Pandora's fancied ills let loose on this poor world,
Till now it rolls a lazar-house of woes and wounds and sighs;
—But think not, bending from the blue, that those are mourners' eyes!
Unsympathetic Souls of Night! ye arm our hearts with might,
But we catch no pity in your pomp, no love see in your light;
So roll ye on in unconcern above this scene of woe,
And smile in mockery on the taint your robes may never know!
But we catch no pity in your pomp, no love see in your light;
So roll ye on in unconcern above this scene of woe,
And smile in mockery on the taint your robes may never know!
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