Poetry of the Stars
Of Ursa Major...
"Zeus flung them through the air, In whirlwinds to the high heavens,
and fix'd them there, Where the new constellations nightly rise, Lustrous in
the northern skies."-Ovid, 'Metamorphoses''
"One after one the stars have risen and set, Sparkling upon the hoar
frost of my chain... The Bear that prowled all night about the fold Of the
North Star hath shrunk into his den, Scared by the blithesome footsteps of the
dawn..."
"We danced about the May-pole and in the hazel copse Till Charle's
Wain came out above The tall white chimney tops." -Tennyson
"I paced the terrace, till the Bear had wheel'd
Thro' a great arc his seven slow suns." - Tennyson, 'The Princess'
"Heighho, ain't be not four by the day I'll be hanged, Charles Wain
is over the new chimney." - Shakespeare, 'King Henry IV'
"And all the signs through which Night whirls her car, From belted
Orion back to Orion and his dauntless Hound, And all Poseidon's, all high
Zeus's stars, Bear on his beams true messages to man." - Poste, 'Aratos'
"Of every sterne the twynkling notis ben, Thats in the still hevin
move cours we se, Arthurys house, and Hyades betaikning rane, Watling strete,
the Horne and the Charlewane, The fieris Orion with his goldin glave..."
Gavin Douglas, 1513
"Let my lamp at midnight hour, Be seen in some high lonely tower,
Where I may oft outwatch the Bear..." - John Milton
"From that celestial Dipper, or so I thought, the dews were poured
out gently upon the summer world." -B. F. Taylor
"By this the Northern wagoner had set, His sevenfold team behind the
steadfast star, That was in Ocean waves yet newer wet, But firm is fixt, and
sendth light from far, To all that in the wide deep wandering are."
-Spenser
Of the Milky Way...
"They toiled and built a thousand years In love's all powerful
might, And so the Milky Way was made - A starry bridge of light..."
"On the seventh night of the seventh moon, Vega glows in radiant
splendor, On the edge of the River of Stars..."
"The Milky Way in Heaven, Shines on all brightly. The Weaving-Lady
labors there, beside the River, Asking no rewards of Earth. The Ox-Star
glitters and shines, Yoked to no cart of man. In the East shines the Opener of
the Dawn, In the West gleams the Star of Evening. Curved are the wide nets of
Heaven; From the ancient days, in their appointed places." -Shih Ching
"Silent with star-dust, yonder it lies - The Winding Street, so fair
and so white; Winding along through the boundless skies, Down heavenly vale, up
heavenly height...Faintly it gleams, like a summer road, When the light in the
west is sinking low, Silent with star-dust! By whose abode Does the Winter
Street in its windings go? And who are they, all unheard and unseen - O, who
are they, whose blessed feet, Pass over that highway smooth and sheen?"
-Miss Edith Thomas
"In the spacious band serenely bright, From little stars, which
there their beams unite, And make one solid and continued light?" -
Manilius
Of the Pleiades...
"When Atlas-born, the Pleiad stars arise, Before the Sun above the
dawning skies, 'Tis time to reap, and when they sink below, The
morn-illuminated west, 'tis time to sow." -Hesiod
"Many a night from yonder ivied casement, ere I went to rest, Did I
Iook on great Orion, sloping slowly to the west. Many a night I saw the
Pleiads, rising thro' the mellow shade, Glitter like a swarm of fireflies
tangled in a silver braid." -Tennyson 'Locksley Hall'
"These the seven names they bear; Alcyone and Merope, Celaeno,
Taygeta, and Sterope, Electra, And queenly Maia, small alike and faint, But by
the will of Zeus illustrious all At morn and evening, since he makes them mark
Summer and winter, harvesting and seed-time." -Aratus
"...the gray Dawn and the Pleiades before him danc'd, Shedding sweet
influence..." -John Milton
"Their number seven, though the myths oft say, And poets feign, that
one has passed away..." -Aratus
Of the Pole Star...
"All jointly move upon one axletree, Whose teiminine is term'd The
world's wide pole..." -Marlowe, 'History of Doctor Faustus'
"Constellations come, and climb the heavens, and go. Star of the
Pole! And thou dost see them set. Alone in thy cold skies, Thou keepest thy old
unmoving station yet..." -Bryant, 'Hymn to the North Star''
"Bright star! would I were steadfast as thou art - Not in lone
splendour hung aloft the night..." -Keats, 'Last Sonnet'
"The wind-shak'd surge, with high and monsterous mane, Seems to cast
water on the burning bear, And quench the quards of the ever -fixed pole."
- Shakespeare, 'Othello'
Of the Constellations...
"When wintry tempests o'er the savage sea, Are raging and the
sailors tremblingly call On the Twins of Jove with prayer and vow..."
-Shelley, 'Hymn to Castor and Pollux'
"It fell at the time of the year, When the face of night is fair on
the dewy downs, And the shining daffodil dies, and the Charioteer And starry
Gemini hang like glorious crowns, Over Orion's grave low down in the west, That
like a silent lightening under the stars, She seemed to divide in a dream from
a band of the blest..." -Tennyson, 'Maud'
"Begirt with many a blazing star, Stood the great giant Algebar,
Orion, hunter of the beast! His sword hung gleaming by his side, And on his
arm, the lion's hide, Scattered across the midnight air, The golden radiance of
it's hair." -Longfellow, 'Occultation of Orion'
"...A single misty star, Which is the second in a line of stars,
That seem a sword beneath a belt of three, I never gazed upon it but I dreamt,
Of some vast charm concluded in that star, To make fame nothing." -Tennyson,
'Merlin and Vivien'
"Just wander off by yourself, And look up from time to time, In
perfect silence, At the stars..." - Walt Whitman
"Virgin August! Come in they regal state, With soft majestic grace
and brow serene, Though the fierce Lion's reign is overpast, The summer's heat
is all they own as yet; And all untouched they robe of living green..."
General Stars...
"...As if the light of a thousand suns should suddenly appear in the
heavens...such would be the glory of the Eternal One." - Bhagavad-Gita
XI,12
"Here it is night...I stand before the Summit Temple; The stars are
almost within reach of my hand...In the awesome silence I speak no word, That I
disturb not the dwellers of Heaven." -Li Po
"Look! Through that window shine the stars of eternal night. Even
now they are shining above the scenes you have known and cherished, drinking of
their charm that they may shine more lovely over the gardens of dream...Go
now...the casement is open, and the stars wait outside..Steer for Vega through
the night..."-Howard P. Lovecraft, 'The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath'
"Hereafter, when they come to model Heav'n, And calculate the Stars,
How will they wield The mighty frame, how build, unbuild, contrive, To save
appearances, how grid the Sphere With Centric and Eccentric scribbl'd o'er,
Cycle and Epicycle, Orb in Orb." -John Milton, 'Paradise Lost'
"Old apple tree, old apple tree, We've come to wassail thee, To bear
and to bow apples anew, Hats full, caps full. Three bushel bags full, Barn
doors full and a little heap for under the stars." -Somerset, England
Wassail song
"The Universe is not only queerer then we suppose, it is queerer
then we can suppose." -Mark Twain
"Night like a mask has entered heavens great hall, with a thousand
torches ushering the way." -Barksted
"Look, how bright a star shooteth from the sky, So glides he in the
night from Venus's eye." -Ovid
Of the Moon...
"For when Endymion once in Latmos slept, The Moone (some say) came
down and kissed him there, Erroneous fame reports that she hath kept Him ever
since within her spotlesse Sphere. And of this falsehood, so profusely blowne,
The generall tale of Man i' th' Moone is growne." -William Base
"Queen and huntress, chaste and fair, Now the sun is laid to sleep,
Seated in thy silver chair, State in wonted manner keep; Hesperus entreats they
light, Goddess exceedingly bright." -Johnson
"Praised be Diana's fair and harmless light, Praised be the dews
wherewith she moists the ground, Praised be her beams, the glory of the night;
Praised be her power, by which all powers abound..." -Sir Walter Ralegh
"There was an old woman tossed up in a blanket, Seventeen times as
high as the moon, What she did there I cannot tell you, But in her hand she
carried a broom. Old woman, Old woman, Old woman said I, O whither, O whither,
O whither so high? To sweep the cobwebs from the sky, And I shall be back again
by and by." -Mother Goose
