| |
| YES, stars were with me formerly. | |
| (I also knew the wind and sea; | |
| And hill-tops had my feet by heart. | |
| Their shagged heights would sting and start | |
| When I came leaping on their backs. | 5 |
| I knew the earth’s queer crooked cracks, | |
| Where hidden waters weave a low | |
| And druid chant of joy and woe.) | |
| |
| But stars were with me most of all. | |
| I heard them flame and break and fall. | 10 |
| Their excellent array, their free | |
| Encounter with Eternity, | |
| I learned. And it was good to know | |
| That where God walked, I too might go. | |
| |
| Now, all these things are passed. For I | 15 |
| Grow very old and glad to die. | |
| What did they profit me, say you, | |
| These distant bloodless things I knew? | |
| |
| Profit? What profit hath the sea | |
| Of her deep-throated threnody? | 20 |
| What profit hath the sun, who stands | |
| Staring on space with idle hands? | |
| And what should God Himself acquire | |
| From all the aeons’ blood and fire? | |
| |
| My profit is as theirs: to be | 25 |
| Made proof against mortality: | |
| To know that I have companied | |
| With all that shines and lives, amid | |
| So much the years sift through their hands, | |
| Most mortal, windy, worthless sands. | 30 |
| |
| This day I have great peace. With me | |
| Shall stars abide eternally! | |
| |
