Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, STARS, by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

STARS, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: If to the heavens you lift your eyes
Last Line: Blood-red antares, foe to man.
Alternate Author Name(s): Ramal, Walter; De La Mare, Walter


If to the heavens you lift your eyes
When Winter reigns o'er our Northern skies,
And snow-cloud none the zenith mars,
At Yule-tide midnight these your stars:
Low in the South see bleak-blazing Sirius;
Above him hang Betelgeuse, Procyon wan;
Wild-eyed to West of him, Rigel and Bellatrix,
And rudd-red Aldebaran journeying on.
High in night's roof-tree beams twinkling Capella;
Vega and Deneb prowl low in the North;
Far to the East roves the Lion-heart, Regulus;
While the twin sons of Zeus to'rd the zenith gleam forth.

But when Midsummer Even in man's sleep-drowsed hours
Refreshes for daybreak its dew-bright flowers,
Though three of these Night Lights aloft remain,
For nine, if you gaze, you will gaze in vain.
Yet comfort find, for, far-shining there,
See golden Arcturus and cold Altair;
Crystalline Spica, and, strange to scan,
Blood-red Antares, foe to Man.





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