Classic Poem

Watching suns and planets veer
Through the windless atmosphere
All night vigilant, alone,
He judged their going from a throne
Higher than kings of earth sit on, —
From the unbreathing midnight hour
Till the cold and rainy dawn
Struck the observatory tower
And pines began to bend and lower
On the mountain range below;
Herds dark-streaked by the shower
Sought uplands green with melted snow;
The cataract in sheets of spray,
Sullen through the forest blown,
Through the forest drenched a way.
Then the stars of heaven were gone.
Fire-hearted steeds that run
With a heavenly delight
On the pampas of the night
Lawful and untameable,
All the stars from heaven were gone,
In his mind come down to dwell
From the pampas of the sky.
If they rise up clear and high,
If they set in blinding rain,
Of their ranging he can tell,
And they know their master nigh
When he strokes each plunging mane.
The celestial worlds inherit
The dark pasture of his spirit.