Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, KEPLER'S VISION, by ELIZABETH DOTEN


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

KEPLER'S VISION, by                    
First Line: Upon the clear, bright, northern sky
Last Line: The truths that yet shall be revealed.
Alternate Author Name(s): Doten, Lizzie
Subject(s): Immortality; Spirituality


UPON the clear, bright, northern sky,
Aurora's rainbow arches gleamed,
While, from their radiant source on high,
The countless host of evening beamed;
Each moving in its path of light—
Those paths by Science then untrod—
The silent guardians of the night,
The watchers by the throne of God.

Far up above the gloomy wood,—
The wavy, murmuring wood of pine,—
Upon the mountain side, there stood
A worshipper at Nature's shrine.
His spirit, like a breathing lyre,
At each celestial touch awoke,
And burning with a sacred fire,
His voice the solemn silence broke.

"O, glittering host! O, golden line!
I would I had an angel's ken,
Your deepest secrets to divine,
And read your mysteries to men.
The glorious truth is in my soul,
The solemn witness in my heart—
Although ye move as one great whole,
Each bears his own appointed part."

He slept. No! in a blissful trance
The feebler powers of Nature lay,
While upward, o'er the vast expanse,
His eager spirit swept away,—
Away into those fields of light,
By human footsteps unexplored;
Order and beauty met his sight—
He saw, he wondered, and adored!

And o'er the vast area of space,
And through the height and depth profound,
Each starless void and shining place
Was filled with harmony of sound.
Now, swelling like the voice of seas,
With the full, rushing tide of years,
Then, sighing like an evening breeze,
It died among the distant spheres.

Rich goblets filled with "Samian wine,"
Or "Life's elixir, sparkling high,"
Could not impart such joy divine
As that full chorus of the sky.
He might have heard the Orphean lute,
Or caught the sound of Memnon's lyre,
And yet his lips could still be mute,
Nor feel one spark of kindred fire.

But now, o'er ravished soul and sense,
Such floods of living music broke,
That, filled with rapture too intense,
His disenchanted spirit woke.
Awoke! but not to lose the sound,
The echo of that holy song;
He breathed it to the world around,
And others bore the strain along.

O, unto few the power is given
To pass beyond the bounds of Time,
And lift the radiant veil of Heaven,
To view her mysteries sublime.
Yet Thou, in whose majestic light
The Source of Knowledge lies concealed,
Prepare us to receive aright
The truths that yet shall be revealed.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net