Pocahontas and Other Poems (New York)/Gemini

by Lydia Huntley Sigourney

GEMINI.

---

Twins of the heavenly house, how fair
Your guerdons to our planet are!
    Skies ye paint of richest blue,
And where the daisy's eye is found
Peeping from the moisten'd ground,
    Ye lead those crystal waters through
Which old Aquarius bound.
The winged tenants of the grove
Greet ye with a song of love,
As mid the green boughs, void of fear,
Their chambers soft and warm they rear:
Hovers round each blooming stalk
    The bee, with nectar fill'd,
And ants within the garden walk
    Their cone-roof'd cities build.

Sounds from every rippling shore
Speak the reign of winter o'er,
Shouting boys, with mirthful note,
Gayly launch the tiny boat,
And the new-fledged ducklings play
On their oary-footed way,
And when Evening dims the lake,
Frogs their hoarse orchestra wake,
And the tortoise loves to tell,
Peering from his mottled shell,

'Tween the water and the land,
Tales his comrades understand.

Starry twins! your earliest ray
    England's merry rustics hail,
Round the Maypole circling gay
    In the primrose-scented vale.
Every cottage sends its pride,
Youth, or maid, or recent bride,
    To the thronging village plain,
While the matron, mid her care,
In her daughter's beauty rare,
    Lives her triumphs o'er again.
E'en that much-enduring race,*^[1]
Who upon the darken'd face
Bear the symbol of their state,
Outcast and unfortunate,
Seem to hope and freedom born
On young May's propitious morn,
And throughout the toil-worn year,
Climbing high in chimney drear,
Guard the memory, sadly gay,
Of their lonely holyday.

Ancient Rome, with festive rite,
Hailed ye, glittering twins of light,
And the wreaths of Flora cast,
Where your blended footsteps past.
Classic Greece, with legends hoar,
Link'd her lineage to your lore,

Pointing with her haughty hand
To the Argonautic band,
Who to win the fleece of gold
Dared the seas with Jason bold.

But from your refulgent urn
To a higher source we turn;
To Him who, with a shepherd's care,
Arcturus feeds in fields of air,
Rules Orion's wrath, and sees
The duly marshall'd Pleiades.
Hath He not the zodiac's bound
Traced these azure skies around?
Bidding every season prove
Changeless, unforgetful love,
That by teachers so divine,
Starry lessons, line on line,
Man, the pupil of the sky,
    Might be taught with praise to glow,
And the love that lights his eye,
    To his brother's heart to show?

1. * The chimney-sweep boys, who in London have their holyday on the first of May.