The Poetical Works of George Barlow :: :: University of Virginia Library

Across the solemn purple plains of night
The starry light
Falls in a million gold and silver rays.
Within the arch of heaven the star-flowers sing:
Yes, these too bring
Their ceaseless tribute of deep love and praise.

God sowed the fields with daisies—so they say:
With many a ray
Of golden light he sowed the heavens on high.
We are the blossoms of the purple air:
We blossom there,
The buttercups and cowslips of the sky.

213

One law pervades our being. We arise
Upon the skies
In sudden fiery light and fervent heat:—
Then grass and herbs upon our surface grow,
And after lo!
The varied countless life we find so sweet.

Some stars are tulips of the deep-blue sky,
And others vie
With snowdrops in their whiteness as they gleam.
There are fierce warrior-hosts of ardent stars,
Decked out like Mars;
But other orbs are gentle as a dream.

All are swayed justly by the high God's hand.—
Our sea and land
Are duly parted, and our living things
All render homage unto God who made
The sun and shade,
And gave the fish its scales, the bird its wings.

All, all is good.—The viper in the fen,
The worst of men,
Can bring to pass the high God's perfect will.

214

No single ray of light from any star
Can wander far;
Each has some fruitful purpose to fulfil.

Storm, thunder, terror, blood-red war, white peace,—
Hopes that increase,—
Fears that wax strong, or passionate joys that wane,—
These all achieve their end: Fierce pain and woe,
Sunshine or snow,
Thin fields of corn, or leagues of golden grain.

On each star at its great appointed hour
God sends the power
Of some redeeming saviour-soul indeed.
All stars shall know in turn a saviour's face,
And woman's grace
In each to woman's serfdom shall succeed.

On one small star that swings in dark-blue air
A saviour fair
Was born in a far Eastern land, they tell.
Great marvellous deeds he did with loving hand
In that far land,
And lifted souls from sin, and saved from hell.

215

But ah! small star, in regions past thy dream
Star-legions gleam;
Thy resurrection-tale is also ours.
In every star Christ died: in each Christ rose.
Each planet knows
Its Saviour crowned with thorns,—then crowned with flowers.

All stars move slowly towards their destined fate,
Small stars and great:
Each star was born, and each shall find its tomb.
Yes: the Eternal power whom we obey
Shall sweep one day
All stars and strong suns into lampless gloom

Then He, the Eternal power, shall build again
The dark night's fane,
And fit the dome of heaven with lamps quite new
Just as earth's blossoms wither in a night,
So all our light
Shall pass, and fresh lamps burn against the blue

A million, million years are but a day
To God, one ray
Of wandering sunlight thrown against the dark.

216

And yet the Eternal power shall never lose
One white star-rose,
One pale moon-petal, or one red sun-spark.

The tiniest flower the living God's hand made
In the first glade
In the first star he flung upon the sky
Is living yet in some unknown fair mode
In some abode:
God hears the hidden violet's faintest sigh.

Beyond all highest poets' highest dreams
The sweet truth gleams,
Gleams out resplendent. Nought can pass away.
What God has once inspired with living breath,
This knows not death:
Sunset predicts another golden day.

The sunset of the stars when all things end,
This doth portend
Another sunrise on the seas of space;
Another vision of more stars than ours,
And fadeless flowers,
And deathless beings of a lordlier race.

217

So, ever, living God, we worship thee.
Each galaxy
Of moons and suns and stars that veer and change
Worships with endless worship at thy shrine:
For they are thine,
And thou art theirs, in union sweet and strange.