Classic Poem

A FEW hours since, when Night had just begun
To light her everlasting lamps above,
In the far Northeast the fair Pleiades
Hung like a cluster of ripe golden fruit
Against the dim horizon wall; but now
They have climbed upward far upon their course,
And the whole heavens are changed from what they were.
What a rare jubilee of blessed lights!
Above me spread the vineyards of the sky,
Untrodden save by feet of cherubim;
Wide fields of glittering immensity
Blooming in beauty unapproachable;
Clear, solemn beacon-fires by angels fed,
To fright away bad spirits, and to guard
The Universe from blight; — and stretching through
Long galaxies of star-dust — the highways
Of souls — a tangled wilderness of suns
Crowded into perspective of a length
That tires out the up-labouring wing of thought.
There great Orion striding in his might,
Fast girt with sparkling belt and scimetar,
Facing the Bull's red eye, Aldebaran; —
Bootes with his dogs; — the Greater Bear
Circling untired around the frozen North; —
Lone Cassiopaea sitting in her chair; —
Dewy Capella trembling all apart,
And changing red and blue her liquid light; —
Majestic Sirius, kingliest of all
That rule the skies; — all these and millions more:
O what a pomp and blazonry is out
Over my head in the deep dome of God!
The uncounted eyes whose spiritual light
Should hush the restless world into a prayer
As pure and noiseless as the thoughts of God. —
Ye blessed Stars! how oft when feverish moods
Born out of earthly fears and hopes were mine,
Hath your meek shining soothed me into peace!
So friendly-distant — coming every night,
Yet still so inaccessible.
Fit type ye are, ye blessed Stars, to me,
Of Love and Reason ruling Will and Sense;
Of that true Light which lighteneth every soul,
And still abides with man, and guides his steps;
A friendly, oft a too familiar ray,
Yet born of God, and springing from a fount
As far beyond your light as ye from earth.