Classic and Contemporary Poetry
ODE ON ASTRONOMY; WRITTEN FOR THE PRIZE AT CAMBRIDGE, by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Hail venerable night! Last Line: A god the gods among. Subject(s): Astronomy & Astronomers; Immortality; Mythology - Classical; Night; Sky; Stars; Bedtime | ||||||||
HAIL venerable night! O first-created hail! Thou who art doom'd in thy dark breast to veil The dying beam of light. The eldest and the latest thou, Hail venerable night! Around thine ebon brow, Glittering plays with lightning rays A wreath of flowers of fire. The varying clouds with many a hue attire The many-tinted veil. Holy are the blue graces of thy zone! But who is he whose tongue can tell The dewy lustres which thine eyes adorn? Lovely to some the blushes of the morn; To some the glory of the day, When blazing with meridian ray The gorgeous sun ascends his highest throne; But I with solemn and severe delight Still watch thy constant car, immortal night! For then to the celestial palaces Urania leads, Urania, she The goddess who alone Stands by the blazing throne, Effulgent with the light of deity. Whom wisdom, the creatrix, by her side Placed on the heights of yonder sky, And smiling with ambrosial love, unlock'd The depths of nature to her piercing eye. Angelic myriads struck their harps around, And with triumphant song The host of stars, a beauteous throng, Around the ever-living mind In jubilee their mystic dance begun; When at thy leaping forth, O sun! The morning started in affright, Astonished at thy birth, her child of light. Hail O Urania hail! Queen of the muses! mistress of the song! For thou didst deign to leave the heavenly throng, As earthward thou thy steps wert bending, A ray went forth and harbingered thy way; All ether laughed with thy descending. Thou hadst wreathed thy hair with roses, The flower that in the immortal bower Its deathless bloom discloses. Before thine awful mien, compell'd to shrink; Fled ignorance abashed and all her brood; Dragons, and hags of baleful breath, Fierce dreams that wont to drink The sepulchre's black blood; Or on the wings of storms Riding in fury forms Shrieked to the mariner the shriek of death. I boast, O goddess, to thy name That I have raised the pile of fame! Therefore to me be given To roam the starry path of heaven, To charioteer with wings on high And to rein in the tempests of the sky. Chariots of happy gods! fountains of light! Ye angel-temples bright! May I unblamed your flamy threshold tread? I leave earth's lowly scene; I leave the moon serene, The lovely queen of night; I leave the wide domains Beyond where Mars his fiercer light can fling, And Jupiter's vast plains, (The many-belted king;) Even to the solitude where Saturn reigns. Like some stern tyrant to just exile driven; Dim seen the sullen power appears In that cold solitude of heaven, And slow he drags along The mighty circle of long-lingering years. Nor shalt thou escape my sight, Who at the threshold of the sun-trod domes Art trembling,youngest daughter of the night! And you, ye fiery-tressed strangers, you Comets who wander wide, Will I along your pathless way pursue, Whence bending I may view The worlds whom elder suns have vivified. For hope, with loveliest visions soothes my mind That even in man, life's winged power, When comes again the natal hour, Shall on heaven-wandering feet In undecaying youth, Spring to the blessed seat; Where round the fields of truth The fiery essences for ever feed; And o'er the ambrosial mead, The breezes of serenity Silent and soothing glide for ever by. There priest of nature! dost thou shine Newton! a king among the kings divine. Whether with harmony's mild force, He guides along its course The axle of some beauteous star on high; Or gazing in the spring Ebullient with creative energy, Feels his pure breast with rapturous joy possest, Inebriate in the holy ecstasy! I may not call thee mortal, then, my soul! Immortal longings lift thee to the skies: Love of thy native home inflames thee now, With pious madness wise. Know then thyself! expand thy wings divine! Soon mingled with thy fathers thou shalt shine A star amid the starry throng, A god the gods among. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE BREATH OF NIGHT by RANDALL JARRELL HOODED NIGHT by ROBINSON JEFFERS NIGHT WITHOUT SLEEP by ROBINSON JEFFERS WORKING OUTSIDE AT NIGHT by DENIS JOHNSON POEM TO TAKE BACK THE NIGHT by JUNE JORDAN COOL DARK ODE by DONALD JUSTICE POEM TO BE READ AT 3 A.M by DONALD JUSTICE ROUND ABOUT MIDNIGHT by BOB KAUFMAN A CHILD'S EVENING PRAYER by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE A DAY DREAM by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE A THOUGHT SUGGESTED BY A VIEW, OF SADDLEBACK IN CUMBERLAND by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE |
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