Poems (Gould, 1833)/The Star

by Hannah Flagg Gould

For works with similar titles, see The Star.

THE STAR.

Ever beaming, still I hang,
Bright as when my birth I sang
 From chaotic night,
In the boundless, azure dome
Where I 've made my constant home,
Till thousand, thousand years have come
 To sweep earth's things from sight!

Mortals, I unchanging view
Every change that sports with you
 On your shadowy ball.
All below my native skies,
Here I mark how soon it dies;
How your proudest empires rise,
 Flourish, shake, and fall!

Wealth and splendor, pomp and pride,
I've beheld you laid aside;
 Love and hate forgot!
Fame, ambition, glory, power,
You I 've seen enjoy your hour;
Beauty, withering as a flower,
 While I altered not!

Him, whose sceptre swayed the world,
I have seen aghast, and hurled
 From his lofty throne.
Monarch's form and vassal's clay
Turned to dust and swept away:
E'en to tell where once they lay,
 I am left alone!

When I've been from age to age,
Questioned by the lettered sage
 What a star might be,
I've answered not; for soon, I knew,
He 'd have a clearer, nobler view,
And look the world of mysteries through
 In vast eternity!

Mortals, since ye pass as dew,
Seize the promise made for you
 Ere your day is o'er.
The righteous, says a page divine,
Are as the firmament to shine;
And like the stars, when I and mine
 Are quenched to beam no more!