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I
AMONG the thousand, thousand spheres that roll, | |
| Wheel within wheel, through never-ending space, | |
| A mighty and interminable race, | |
| Yet held by some invisible control, | |
| And led as to a sure and shining goal, | 5 |
| One star alone, with still, unchanging face, | |
| Looks out from her perpetual dwelling-place, | |
| Of these swift orbs the centre and the soul. | |
| Beyond the moons that beam, the stars that blaze, | |
| Past fields of ether, crimson, violet, rose, | 10 |
| The vast star-garden of eternity, | |
| Behold! it shines with white immaculate rays, | |
| The home of peace, the haven of repose, | |
| The lotus-flower of heaven, Alcyone. | |
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II
It is the place where life’s long dream comes true; | 15 |
| On many another swift and radiant star | |
| Gather the flaming hosts of those who war | |
| With powers of darkness; those stray seraphs, too, | |
| Who hasten forth God’s ministries to do: | |
| But here no sounds of eager trumpets mar | 20 |
| The subtler spell which calls the soul from far, | |
| Its wasted springs of gladness to renew. | |
| It is the morning land of the Ideal, | |
| Where smiles, transfigured to the raptured sight, | |
| The joy whose flitting semblance now we see; | 25 |
| Where we shall know, as visible and real, | |
| Our life’s deep aspiration, old yet new, | |
| In the sky-splendor of Alcyone. | |
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III
What lies beyond we ask not. In that hour | |
| When first our feet that shore of beauty press, | 30 |
| It is enough of heaven, its sweet success, | |
| To find our own. Not yet we crave the dower | |
| Of grander action and sublimer power; | |
| We are content that life’s long loneliness | |
| Finds in love’s welcoming its rich redress, | 35 |
| And hopes, deep hidden, burst in perfect flower. | |
| Wait for me there, O loved of many days! | |
| Though with warm beams some beckoning planet glows, | |
| Its dawning triumphs keep, to share with me: | |
| For soon, far winging through the starry maze, | 40 |
| Past fields of ether, crimson, violet, rose, | |
| I follow, follow to Alcyone! | |
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