The Star

by Hannah Flagg Gould

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 holy 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!