An Ode to Astronomy and other poems by Arthur E. Waite, (Written at the age of Nineteen) |
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AN ODE TO ASTRONOMY. |
 | An Ode to Astronomy and other poems |  |
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AN ODE TO ASTRONOMY.
I.
Hail! Heaven-born science, on whose soaring pinionsThe mind of man is borne
Triumphant, through the most remote dominions
Of cavernous night and sun-enlivened morn.
Hail! searcher of the realms of space,
Hail! scorner of this lower ground,
Whose soul, unchained by time or place,
The heights of Heaven can span, its void abysses sound.
II.
What sights and scenes are thine!What rhapsodies divine!
What poems unconceived by singer's brain!
What thoughts sublimely great
The spirit to elate,
And purify like fire the earth-born brain!
What hours of bliss approaching
To the joys that angels feel,
When the hand seems almost touching
What the telescopes reveal;
And the mind, borne high and higher,
Leaps, like Heaven attracted fire,
To the stars the eyes untiring contemplate,
With enthusiasm elate!
III.
'Tis thine the secrets of the sky to know,To solve the problems of the universe,
To watch the course of worlds that glow
Unknown, unfelt by us.
Thy scenes are landscapes system strewn,
Thine the deep music of the spheres,
Thy quenchless lamps the sun and moon,
Thy time is measured by a million years;
Thy landmarks worlds, thy oceans trackless space,
Thy banners knowledge over Heaven unfurled,
Thy measures distances no thought can trace,
Thy poetry the epic of the world.
| An Ode to Astronomy and other poems | |