Poems About Stars

Bright Star! would I were steadfast as thou art--Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night,And watching, with eternal lids apart,Like Nature's patient sleepless Eremite,

The moving waters at their priestlike taskOf pure ablution round earth's human shores,Or gazing on the new soft fallen maskOf snow upon the mountains and the moors:--

No--yet still steadfast, still unchangeable,Pillow'd upon my fair Love's ripening breastTo feel for ever its soft fall and swell,Awake for ever in a sweet unrest;

Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,And so live ever,--or else swoon to death.

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,How I wonder what you are,Up above the world so high,Like a diamond in the sky.

When the blazing sun is set,And the grass with dew is wet,Then you show your little light,Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.

Then the traveler in the darkThanks you for your tiny spark,He could not see where to goIf you did not twinkle so.

In the dark blue sky you keep,And often through my curtains peep,For you never shut your eyeTill the sun is in the sky.

As your bright and tiny sparkLights the traveler in the dark,Though I know not what you are,Twinkle, twinkle, little star.

Star that bringest home the bee,And sett'st the weary labourer free!If any star shed peace, 'tis Thou That send'st it from above,Appearing when Heaven's breath and brow Are sweet as hers we love.

Come to the luxuriant skies,Whilst the landscape's odours rise,Whilst far-off lowing herds are heard And songs when toil is done,From cottages whose smoke unstirr'd Curls yellow in the sun.

Star of love's soft interviews,Parted lovers on thee muse;Their remembrancer in Heaven Of thrilling vows thou art,Too delicious to be riven By absence from the heart.

All that I knowOf a certain starIs, it can throw(Like the angled spar)Now a dart of red,Now a dart of blue,Till my friends have saidThey would fain see, too,My star that dartles the red and the blue!Then it stops like a bird; like a flower, hangs furled:They must solace themselves with the Saturn above it.What matter to me if their star is a world?Mine has opened its soul to me; therefore I love it.

At the mid hour of night, when stars are weeping, I flyTo the lone vale we loved, when life shone warm in thine eye;And I think oft, if spirits can steal from the regions of airTo revisit past scenes of delight, thou wilt come to me thereAnd tell me our love is remember'd even in the sky!

Then I sing the wild song it once was rapture to hearWhen our voices, commingling, breathed like one on the ear;And as Echo far off through the vale my sad orison rolls,I think, O my love! 'tis thy voice, from the Kingdom of SoulsFaintly answering still the notes that once were so dear.

More and more stars! behold yon hazy arch Spanning the vault on high,By planets traversed in majestic march, Seeming to earth's dull eyeA breath of gleaming air: but take thou wing Of Faith and upward spring:--Into a thousand stars the misty lightWill part; each star a world with its own day and night.

Not otherwise of yonder Saintly host Upon the glorious shoreDeem thou. He marks them all, not one is lost; By name He counts them o'er.Full many a soul, to man's dim praise unknown, May on its glory throneAs brightly shine, and prove as strong in prayerAs theirs, whose separate beams shoot keenest thro' this air.

Gem of the crimson-colour'd Even,Companion of retiring day,Why at the closing gates of heaven,Beloved Star, dost thou delay?

So fair thy pensile beauty burnsWhen soft the tear of twilight flows;So due thy plighted love returnsTo chambers brighter than the rose;

To Peace, to Pleasure, and to loveSo kind a star thou seem'st to be,Sure some enamour'd orb aboveDescends and burns to meet with thee.

When sunset flows into golden glowsAnd the breath of the night is new,Love, find afar eve's eager star -That is my thought of you.

O tear-wet eye that scans the skyYour lonely lattice through:Choose any one, from sun to sun -That is my thought of you.

And when you wake at the morning's breakTo rival rose and dew,The star that stays till the leaping rays -That is my thought of you.

Ay, though by day they seem awayBeyond or cloud or blue,From dawn to night unquenched their light -As are my thoughts of you.

When, marshalled on the nightly plain, The glittering host bestud the sky,One star alone, of all the train, Can fix the sinner's wandering eye.

Hark! hark! to God the chorus breaks, From every host, from every gem:But one alone the Saviour speaks, It is the Star of Bethlehem.

Once on the raging seas I rode, The storm was loud, the night was dark,The ocean yawned, and rudely blowed The wind that tossed my foundering bark.

Deep horror then my vitals froze, Death-struck, I ceased the tide to stem;When suddenly a star arose,-- It was the Star of Bethlehem.

It was my guide, my light, my all, It bade my dark forebodings cease;And through the storm and dangers' thrall It led me to the port of peace.

Now safely moored, my perils o'er, I'll sing, first in night's diadem,Forever and forevermore, The Star!--the Star of Bethlehem!

A star is gone! a star is gone! There is a blank in Heaven;One of the cherub choir has done His airy course this even.

He sat upon the orb of fire That hung for ages there,And lent his music to the choir That haunts the nightly air.

But when his thousand years are pass’d, With a cherubic sighHe vanish’d with his car at last, For even cherubs die!

When Love, our great Immortal,Put on mortality,And down from Eden's portalBrought this sweet life to be,At the sublime archangelHe laughed with veiled eyes,For he bore within his bosomThe seed of Paradise.

He hid it in his bosom,And there such warmth it found,It brake in bud and blossomAnd the rose fell on the ground;As the green light on the prairie,As the red light on the sea,Through fragrant belts of summerCame this sweet life to be.

And the grave archangel seeing,Spread his mighty wings for flight,But the glow hung round him fleeingLike the rose of an Arctic night;And sadly moving heavenwardBy Venus and by Mars,He heard the joyful planetsHail Earth, the Rose of Stars.

The Northern StarSailed over the barBound to the Baltic Sea;In the morning grayShe stretched away:--'Twas a weary day to me!

For many an hourIn sleet and showerBy the lighthouse rock I stray;And watch till darkFor the winged barkOf him that is far away.

The castle's boundI wander round,Amidst the grassy graves:But all I hearIs the north wind drear,And all I see are the waves.

The Northern StarIs set afar!Set in the Baltic Sea:And the waves have spreadThe sandy bedThat holds my Love from me.

The Crescent-moon, the Star of Love, Glories of evening, as ye there are seen With but a span of sky between-- Speak one of you, my doubts remove,Which is the attendant Page and which the Queen?

The night is come, but not too soon; And sinking silently,All silently, the little moon Drops down behind the sky.

There is no light in earth or heaven But the cold light of stars;And the first watch of night is given To the red planet Mars.

Is it the tender star of love? The star of love and dreams?O no! from that blue tent above, A hero's armor gleams.

BEFORE the clepsydra had bound the daysMan tethered Change to his fixed star, and said:"The elder races, that long since are dead,Marched by that light; it swerves not from its baseThough all the worlds about it wax and fade."

When Egypt saw it, fast in reeling spheres,Her Pyramids shaft-centred on its rayShe reared and said: "Long as this star holds swayIn uninvaded ether, shall the yearsRevere my monuments--" and went her way.

The Pyramids abide; but through the shaftThat held the polar pivot, eye to eye,

Most merciful GodLook kindly uponAn impudent childWho wants sitting on.This evening lateI went to the doorAnd then to the gateThere were more stars--moreThan I could have expected,Even I!I was simply amazedAlmighty, August!I was utterly dazed,Omnipotent! JustIn a word I was floored,Good God of Hosts--Lord!That at this time of dayThey should still blaze away,That thou hadst not rejectedOr at least circumspectedTheir white silver beauty--Was it spite ... Was it duty..?

Star of the East, that long ago Brought wise men on their wayWhere, angels singing to and fro, The Child of Bethlehem lay--Above that Syrian hill afarThou shinest out to-night, O Star!

Star of the East, the night were drear But for the tender graceThat with thy glory comes to cheer Earth's loneliest, darkest place;For by that charity we seeWhere there is hope for all and me.

Star of the East! show us the way In wisdom undefiledTo seek that manger out and lay Our gifts before the child--To bring our hearts and offer themUnto our King in Bethlehem!

How can the makers of unrighteous wars Stand the accusal of the watchful stars?

To stand--A dust-speck, facing the infinitudesOf Thine unfathomable dome, a night like this,--To stand full-face to Thy High Majesties,Thy myriad worlds in solemn watchfulness,--Watching, watching, watching all below,And man in all his wilfulness for woe!--Dear Lord, one wonders that Thou bearest stillWith man on whom Thou didst such grace bestow,And with his wilful faculty for woe!