EPHEMEROS

A firefly cried across the night:

“O lofty star, O streaming light,

Clear eye of heaven, immortal lamp

Set high above the dew and damp,

Thou great high-priest to heaven's King

And chief of all the choirs that sing

Their golden, endless antiphons

Of praise before the eternal thrones —

Hear thou my prayer of worship! Thine

The glory, all the dimness mine.

I am a feeble glimmering spark

Vagrant along the lower dark.”

The star called down from heaven's roof

With a humble heart and mild reproof:

“The Power that made, the Breath that blew

My fire aglow has kindled you

With equal love and equal pain

And equal toil of heart and brain.

For I am only a wandering light,

Your elder comrade in the night.

We are two sisters, you and I,

And when we two burn out and die

It will be hardly known from far

Which was the firefly, which the star.”