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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE BLIND ASTRONOMER, by THOMAS ASA
First Line: The starry train wend on, their sight unseen
Last Line: Shall mark my way to god's eternity.
Subject(s): Galileo (1564-1642); Stars; Galileo Galilei
First Line: The starry train wend on, their sight unseen
Last Line: Shall mark my way to god's eternity.
Subject(s): Galileo (1564-1642); Stars; Galileo Galilei
The starry train wend on, their sight unseen
By mortal eyes once nightly turned to them.
Oh days of utter darkness without hope!
Not of the blackness of the shadowed skies --
Not of cavernous depths of underworlds,
Nor fathomless deeps of somber waters,
But this: the darkness of these stricken eyes
That rove in futile, maddening despair,
By ruthless veils of mortal finitude
Shut off from the visible world of men.
O Power divine, just is Thy sacrament!
Nature, outraged, has sealed forevermore
The sacred light of heaven from these eyes,
That nightly upraised in mute communion
With Thy great works, -- Thy glory infinite!
O moon, thou full-orbed splendor of the sky!
Where art thou in thy pristine loveliness?
Hesperus, thou steadfast, shining lamp of night!
Whose beauty hath enthralled earth, sky and sea.
The fair Pleiades, the joyous Seven; --
Saturn, Neptune, and godlike Jupiter!
And all the mighty kindred of the spheres;
These have I left behind, in blindness sealed.
Their ceaseless light, on earth forever loved,
Shall mark my way to God's eternity.
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