Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE STARS; SESTINA, by AGNES MARY F. ROBINSON Poet's Biography First Line: Stars in the sky, fold upon fold of stars! Last Line: Nought in the abyss, nor ought in the endless years. Alternate Author Name(s): Duclaux, Madame Emile; Darmesteter, Mary; Robinson, A. Mary F. Subject(s): Stars | ||||||||
(TO J. D.) STARS in the sky, fold upon fold or stars! And still beyond the stars those gulfs of air Flecked soft and pale with milkier stars beyond, Millions of miles above our dusky world: Pale stars, whose light down the unplumbed abyss Falls, ere it reach us, through a thousand years. There was a God in the unwritten years Who lit the flaming order of the stars: Let there be Light! He said, and lo! the abyss Grew live and tremulous with rustling air, Grew bright with stars and moons, and each a world Shining, a light to other worlds beyond. O were you even as we, bright orbs beyond Who shine and shed your glory all these years, Not light, but smoke would fall from every world; Smoke, black with human evil, black, O stars With His neglect who lit the sparkling air; But left within -- unformed and void -- the Abyss. O stars that dance indifferent in the Abyss, Our Earth may seem as bright to you beyond; Yourselves, to them that breathe your delicate air, As desolate; Life in the Lunar years As long; and the straight rivers of the stars And primal snows divide as drear a world. And men, perchance, as we, in every world Fill with their dreams the bright and vast abyss: A Christ has died in vain on all the stars, And each, unhappy, seeks a star beyond Where God rewards the dead through endless years... And so we circle, dumb, in the silent air. What shall we find more holy in all the air? Lo, when the first huge, incandescent world Brust out of chaos and flamed a million years, Until, with too much flaming, thro' the abyss Flake after flake dropped off and flamed beyond: -- That was the God who lit the host of stars! For Light, the stars; for breath, the realms of air; For Hope, beyond this dark and suffering world, Nought in the Abyss, nor ought in the endless years. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE EPIC STARS by ROBINSON JEFFERS HYMN TO THE STARS by GEORGE LAWRENCE ANDREWS CHRISTMAS TREE by JOHN FREDERICK NIMS CLEMATIS MONTANA by MADELINE DEFREES THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE by JAMES GALVIN TO SEE THE STARS IN DAYLIGHT by JAMES GALVIN AN ORCHARD AT AVIGNON by AGNES MARY F. ROBINSON |
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