The Star-Treader and Other Poems

A plummet of the changing universe,

Far-cast, I flare

Through gulfs the sun's uncharted orbits bind,

And spaces bare

That intermediate darks immerse

By road of sun nor world confined.

Upon my star-undominated gyre

I mark the systems vanish one by one;

Among the swarming worlds I lunge,

And sudden plunge

Close to the zones of solar fire;

Or 'mid the mighty wrack of stars undone,

Flash, and with momentary rays

Compel the dark to yield

Their aimless forms, whose once far-potent blaze

In ashes chill is now inurned.

A space revealed,

I see their planets turned,

Where holders of the heritage of breath

Exultant rose, and sank to barren death

Beneath the stars' unheeding eyes.

Adown contiguous skies

I pass the thickening brume

Of systems yet unshaped, that hang immense

Along mysterious shores of gloom;

Or see—unimplicated in their doom—

The final and disastrous gyre

Of blinded suns that meet,

And from their mingled heat,

And battle-clouds intense,

O'erspread the deep with fire.

Through stellar labyrinths I thrid

Mine orbit placed amid

The multiple and irised stars, or hid,

Unsolved and intricate,

In many a planet-swinging sun's estate.

Ofttimes I steal in solitary flight

Along the rim of the exterior night

That grips the universe;

And then return,

Past outer footholds of sidereal light,

To where the systems gather and disperse;

And dip again into the web of things,

To watch it shift and burn,

Hearted with stars. On peaceless wings

I pierce, where deep-outstripping all surmise,

The nether heavens drop unsunned,

By stars and planets shunned.

And then I rise

Through vaulting gloom, to watch the dark

Snatch at the flame of failing suns;

Or mark

The heavy-dusked and silent skies,

Strewn thick with wrecked and broken stars,

Where many a fated orbit runs.

An arrow sped from some eternal bow,

Through change of firmaments and systems sent,

And finding bourn nor bars,

I flee, nor know

For what eternal mark my flight is meant.