Song+of+the+Earth

July 1848 **The Song of the Earth** By George Henry Boker

Prelude Chorus of Planets Hark to our voices, O mother of nations! Why art thou dim when thy sisters are radient? Why veil’st thy face in a mantle of vapor, Gliding obscure through the depths of the night? Wake from thy lethargy! Hear’st thou our music, Harmonious, that reaches the confines of space? Join in our chorus, join in our jubilee, Make the day pine with thy far-piercing melody— Pine that his kingdom of blue sky and sunshine Never reechoes such marvelous tones. No, thou art silent, O mystical sister, Silent and proud that thou bear’st on thy bosom <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">The wonderful freight of the God-lighter soul.— <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">We hear thee, we hear thee, beneath thy thick mantle. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">The war of the winds through thy leaf-laden forests, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">And round aisles of thy pillared and hill-piercing <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Caverns sonorous; hear the dread avalanche <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Torn from its quivering mountainous summit, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Ribbed with mossy rocks, crested with pine-trees, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Thundering enormous upon thy fair valleys; <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Hear the dull roar of thy mist-spouting cataracts; <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Hear the faint splash of thy salt seething billows, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Lifting their heads multitudinous, or shoreward <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Climbing the cliffs that o’erhang them with trembling, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">And tossing their spray in exultant defiance <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Over the weed-bearded guardians of oceans. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Sister, we listen; thy strains are enlinking, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Melodiously blending to ravishing harmony; <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Clouds are departing, we see thee, we yearn to thee, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Noblest of planets, creation’s full glory! <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Bending we hearken, thou mother of nations, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Hark to the sky-rending voice of humanity!

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%; text-align: center;"> Song of the Earth

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">O vex me not, ye ever-burning planets; <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Nor sister call me, ye who me afflict. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">I am unlike ye; ye may reveling sing, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Careless and joyful, roaming sunlit ether, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Urged with but one emotion, chaunting still <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Through lapsing time the purpose of your birth, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Each with a several passion; but to me <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Are mixed emotions, vast extremes of feeling— <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Now verdant in the fruitful smile of heaven, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Now waste and blackened in the scowl of hell. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Ye know me not, nor can ye sympathize <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">With one like me, for wisdom is not yours. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Ye sing for joy; but wisdom slowly comes <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">From the close whispers of o’erburdened pain. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">I am alone in all the universe! <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">To me is pain; I can distinguish sin; <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">But ye with constant through unweeting glance <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Rain good or ill, and smile alike at both, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Nor understand the mystery of your natures. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">To me is wisdom—wisdom bought with woe, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Ages on ages passed, when first I strayed, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">With haughty scorn and self-reliant pride, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">From purity and God. For once like you <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">God spoke me face to face, me soulless led <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">From joy to joy; yet He was mystical— <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Too obvious for thought—I knew Him not. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">But now, through sin, I understand like Him <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">The heart of things, the steep descents of guilt, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">And the high pinnacles of heaven-lit virtue. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Bend down, ye stars, ben from your silver thrones, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Ye joyful wanderers of ether bright; <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">For I, soul-bearer of the universe, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Would teach your ignorance with the lips of song!

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">O Mercury, hot planet, burying deep <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Thy forehead in the sunlight, list to me! <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">I groan beneath thy influence. Thou dost urge <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">The myriad hands of labor, and with toil <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Dost mar my features; day by day dost work <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Thy stead changes on my ancient face, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Till all the host of heaven blank wonder look, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Nor know the fresh, primeval moulded form <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">That rose from chaos, like the Aphrodite, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Smiling through dews upon the first morn’s sun. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">The leaf-crowned mountain’s brows thou hurlest down <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Into the dusty valley, and dost still <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">The free wild singing of the cleaving streams <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">To murmurs dying lazily within <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">The knotted roots of pool-engendered lilies, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">That sluggish nod above the slimy dams. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">All day the axe I hear rending through trunks, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Moss-grown and reverend, of clustered oaks; <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">All day the circling scythe sweeps off <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">The ruddy bloom of vain-aspiring fields, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Clipping to stubbles grim the vernal flowers. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Thou portionest my meadows, and dost make <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Each fruitful slope a spot for sweaty toil. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Thou tearest up my bosom; far within <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">My golden veins the grimed miner’s pick <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Startles the babbling echoes. Ancient rocks, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">My hardy bones, are rent with nitrous fire, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">To rear the marts, to bridge the leaping streams, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Or to usurp the ocean’s olden right, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">That selfish trade may dry-shod walk to power. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">The very ocean, grim, implacable, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Thou loudest with the white-winged fleets of commerce, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Crossing, like wheeling birds, each other’s tracks; <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Until the burdened giant, restless grown, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Bounds from his sleep, and in the stooping clouds <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Nods his white head, while splintered navies melt <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">To scattered fragments in his sullen froth. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Malignant star, I feel thy wicked power; <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">My children’s busy thoughts are full of thee: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Thou’st chilled the loving spirit in their hearts, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">And on their lips hast placed the selfish finger— <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">They dare not know each other. All that is, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">All that God blessed my teeming bosom with, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Is priced, and bartered; ay, the very worth <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Of man himself is weighed with senseless gold— <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Therefore I hate thee, bright-browed wanderer!

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Daughter of the sober twilight, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Lustrous planet, ever hanging <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">In the mottled mists that welcome <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Coming morning, or at evening <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Peeping through the ruddy banners <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Of the clouds that wave a parting, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">From their high aerial summits, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">To the blazing god of day— <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">‘T is for thee I raise my paean, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Steady-beaming VENUS, kindler, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">In the stubborn hearts of mortals, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Of the sole surviving passion <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">That enlinks a lost experience <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">With the dull and ruthless present. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Far adown the brightening future, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Prophetess, I see thee glancing— <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">See thee still amid the twilight <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Of the ages rolling onward, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Promising to heart-sick mortals <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Triumph of thy gracious kingdom; <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">When the hand of power shall weaken, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">All the wronger right the wronged, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">And the pure, primeval Eden <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Shall again o’erspread with blossoms <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Sunny hill and shady valley. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">‘T is to thee my piny mountains <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Wave aloft their rustling branches; <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">‘T is to thee my opening flowrets <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Send on high their luscious odors; <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">‘T is to thee my leaping fountains <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Prattle through their misty breathings, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">And the bass of solemn ocean <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Chimes accordant in the chorus. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Every fireside is they altar <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Streaming up its holy incense; <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Every mated pair of mortals, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Happily linked, are priest and priestess, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Pouring to thee full libations <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">From their over-brimming cymbals, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Light the rosy touch of Hymen, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Bands of white-robed youths and maidens <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Whirl aloft the votive myrtle! <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Raise the choral hymn to VENUS— <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Young-eyed VENUS, ever youthful, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Ever on true hearts bestowing <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Pleasures new that never pall! <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Brightest link ‘tween man and heaven, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Soul of virtue, life of goodness, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Cheering light in pain and sorrow, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Pole-star to the struggling voyager <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Wrecked on life’s relentless billows, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Fair reward of trampled sainthood, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Beaming from the throne Eternal <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Lonely hope to sinful mankind— <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Still among the mists of morning, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Still among the clouds of evening, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">While the years drive ever onward, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Hang thy crescent lamp of promise, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">VENUS, blazing star of Love!

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">O MARS, wide heaven is shuddering at the stride <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Of thy mailed foot, most terrible of planets! <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">I see thee struggling with thy brazen front <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">To look a glory from amid the crust <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Of guilty blood that dims thy haughty face; <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">The curse of crime is on thee. Look, behold!

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">See where thy frenzied votaries march <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Hark to the brazen blare of the bugle, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Hark to the rattling clatter of the drums, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">The measured thread of the steel-clad footmen! <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Hark to the laboring horses’ breath, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Painfully tugging the harnessed cannon; <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">The shrill, sharp clink of the warrior’s swords, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">As their chargers bound when the trumpets sound <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Their alarms through the echoing mountains! <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">See the flashing of pennons and scarfs, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Shaming the gorgeous blazon of evening, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Rising and falling ‘mid snowy plumes <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">That dance like foam on the crested billows! <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Bright is the glitter of burnished steel, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Stirring the clamor of martial music, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">The clank of arms has a witchery <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">That wakes the blood in a youthful bosom. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">And who could tell from the pleasant show, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">That flaunts in the sun like a May-day festal, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">For what horrid use are the gleaming sabres, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">What change shall mar, when the battles join <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">This marshaled pageant of shallow glory? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">For then the gilded flags shall be rent, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">The sabres rust with the blood of foemen, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">And the courteous knight shall howl like a wolf, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">When he scents the gory steam of battle.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">The orphan’s curse is on thee, and the tears <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Of widowed matrons plead a fearful cause; <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Each thing my bosom bears, which thou hast touched, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Is loud against thee. Flowers and trampled grass, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">And the long line of waste and barren fields, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Erewhile o’erflowing with a sea of sweets, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Look up all helpless to the pitying heavens, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Showing thy bloody footprints in their wounds, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">And shrieking through their gaunt and leafless trees, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">That stand with imprecating arms outspread, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">They fiercely curse thee with their desolation. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Each cheerless heart-stone in the home of man, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Where ruin grins, and rubs his bony palms, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Demands its lost possessor. Thou hast hurled <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Man’s placid reason from its rightful throne, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">And in its place reared savage force, to clip <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Debate and doubt with murder. Therefore, MARS, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">I, sicken in thy angry glance, and loathe <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">The dull red glitter of thy bloody spear.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">I know thy look, majestic JUPITER; <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">I see thee moving through the stars of heaven <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Girt with thy train of ministering satellites. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Proud planet, I confess thy influence: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">My heart grows big with gazing in thy face; <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Unwonted power pervades my eager frame; <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">My bulk aspiring towers above itself, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">And restless pants to rush on acts sublime, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">At which the wondering stars might stand agaze, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">And the whole universe from end to end, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Conscious of me, should tremble to its core. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Spirit heroical, imperious passion, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">That sharply sets the pliant face of youth, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">That blinds the shrinking eyes of pallid fear, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">And plants the lion’s heart in modest breasts— <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">I know that thou hast led, with regal port, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">The potent spirits of humanity <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Before the van of niggard time, and borne, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">With strides of gigantic, man’s advancing race <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">From power to power; till, like a host of gods, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">They mock my elements, and drag the secrets <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Of my mysterious forces up to light, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Giving them bounds determinate and strait, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">And of their natures, multiform and huge, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Talking to children in familiar way. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">The hero’s sword, the poet’s golden string, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">The tome-illumining taper of the sage, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Flash by thy influence; from thee alone, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Ambitious planet, comes the marvelous power <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">That in a cherub’s glowing form can veil <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">A heart as cold as Iceland, and exalt <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">To deity the demon selfishness. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">O planet, mingle with thy chilling rays, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">That stream inspiring to the hero’s soul, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">One beam of love for vast humanity, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">And thou art godlike. Must it ever be, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">That brightest flowers of action and idea <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Spring from the same dark soil of selfish lust? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Of shrewd ambition’s self-exalting hand, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">And blindly glorify an act at which <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">The host of heaven grow red with thoughtful shame? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Shall knowledge hasten with her sunny face, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">And weeping virtue lag upon the path? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Shall man exultant boast advance of power, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Nor see arise, at every onward stride, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">New forms of sin to shadow every truth? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Roll on, roll on, in self-supported pride, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Prodigious influence of the hero’s soul; <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">I feel thy strength, and tremble in thy glare!

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">O, many-ringed SATURN, turn away <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">The chilling terrors of thy baleful glance! <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Thy gloomy look is piercing to my heart— <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">I wither in thy power! My springs dry up, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">And shrink in horror to their rocky beds; <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">The brooks, that whispered to the lily-bells <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">All day the glory of their mountain homes, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">And kissed the dimples of the wanton rose, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">At the deed blushing to their pebbly strands, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Cease their sweet merriment, and glide afraid <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Beneath the shelter of the twisted sedge. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">The opening bud shrinks back upon its shell, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">As if the north had puffed his frozen breath <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Full in its face. The billowing grain, and grass <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Rippling with windy furrows, stand becalmed; <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Nor through their roots, nor in their tiny veins, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Bestirs the fruitful sap. The very trees, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Broad, hardy sons of crags and sterile plains, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">That roared defiance to the winter’s shout, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">And battled sternly through his cutting sleet, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Droop in their myriad leaves; while nightly birds, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">That piped their shrilling treble to the moon, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Hang silent from the boughs, and peer around, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Awed by mysterious sympathy. From thee, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">From thee, dull planet, comes this lethargy <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">That numbs in ‘mid career meek nature’s power, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">And stills the prattle of her plumed train. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">O icy SATURN, proud in ignorance, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Father of sloth, dark deadening influence, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">That dims the eye to all that’s beautiful, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">And twists the haughty lip with killing scorn <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">For love and holiness—from thee alone <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Springs the cold, crushing power that presses down <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">The infinite in man.—From thee, dull star, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">The cautious love, world-wide, o’erfreighted, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">And sends it panting back upon itself, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">To murmur in its narrow hermitage. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">The boldest hero staggers in thy frown, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">And drops his half-formed projects all aghast; <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">The poet shrinks before thy phantom glare, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Ere the first echo greets his timid song; <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">The startled sage amid the embers hurls <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">The gathered wisdom of a fruitful life. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">O, who may know from what bright pinnacles <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">The mounting soul might look on coming time, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Had all the marvelous thoughts of genius— <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Blasted to nothingness by thy cold sneer— <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Burst through the bud and blossomed into fruit? <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Benumbing planet, on out system’s skirt, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Whirl from thy sphere, and round some lonely sun, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Within whose light no souls their ordeal pass, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Circle and frown amid thy frozen belts; <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">For I am sick of thee, and stately man <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Shrinks to a pigmy in they fearful stare!

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%; text-align: center;"> Finale <span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 130%; text-align: center;">Chorus of Stars <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Heir of eternity, mother of souls, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Let not thy knowledge betray thee to folly! <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Knowledge is proud, self-sufficient, and lone, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Trusting, unguided, its steps in the darkness. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Thine is the learning that mankind may win, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Gleaned in the pathway between joy and sorrow; <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Ours is the wisdom that hallows the child, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Fresh from the touch of his awful Creator, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Dropped, like a star, on thy shadowy realm, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Falling in splendor, but falling to darken. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Ours is the simple religion of faith, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">The wisdom of trust in God who o’errules us; <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Thine is the complex misgivings of thought, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Wrested to form by imperious reason. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">We are forever pursuing the light; <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Thou art forever astray in the darkness. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Knowledge is restless, imperfect, and sad; <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Faith is serene, and completed, and joyful. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Chide not the planets that rule o’er thy ways; <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">They are God’s creatures; nor, proud in thy reason, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Vaunt that thou knowest His counsels and Him.— <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Boaster, though sitting in midst of the glory, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Thou couldst not fathom the least of His thoughts. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Bow in humility, bow thy proud forehead, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Circle thy from in a mantle of clouds, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Hide from the glittering cohorts of evening, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Wheeling in purity, singing in chorus; <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Howl in the depths of thy lone, barren mountains, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Restlessly moan on the deserts of ocean, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Wail o’er thy fall in the desolate forests, <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 110%;">Lost star of paradise, straying alone!