Classic Poem

Who climbs the Equatorial main
Drives on long time through mist and cloud,
Through zones of storm, through thunders loud,
For many a night of fear and pain.

Till one night all is clear, and lo!
He sees with wondering, awe-struck eyes,
In depths above, in depths below,
Strange constellations light the skies —

New stars, more splendid and more fair,
Yet not without a secret loss:
He seeks in vain the Northern Bear,
And finds instead the Southern Cross.

Yet dawns the self-same sun — the same
The deep below the keel which lies;
Though this may burn with brighter flame,
And that respond to bluer skies,

The self-same earth, the self-same sky:
And though through clouds and tempests driven,
The self-same seeker lifts an eye
That sees another side of heaven

No change in man, or earth, or aught,
Save those strange secrets of the night;
Nor there, save that another thought
Has reached them through another sight,

Which may but know one hemisphere,
The earth's mass blotting out the blue,
Till one day, leaving shadows here,
It sees all heaven before its view.