HER STAR.

When the heavens throb and vibrate

All along their silver veins,

To the mellow storm of music

Sweeping o'er the starry trains,

Heard by few, as erst by shepherds

On the far Chaldean plains:

Not the blazing, torch-like planets,

Not the Pleiads wild and free,

Not Arcturus, Mars, Uranus,

Bring the brightest dreams to me;

But I gaze in rapt devotion

On the central star of three.

Central star of three that tingle

In the balmy southern sky;

One above, and one below it,

Dreamily they pale and die,

As two lesser minds might dwindle,

When some great soul, passing by,

Stops, and reads their cherished secrets,

With a calm and godlike air,

Luring all their radiance from them

Leaving a dim twilight there,

Something vague, and half unreal,

Like the Alpha of despair.

Gazing thus, and holding converse

With the silence of my heart,

I would speak with famed Orion,

I would question it apart,

Wrest her love's strange secret from it,

If there's strength in human art.

And there come to me sweet whispers,

Half in answer, half in thought:—

“Be but strong, impassioned mortal!

Love will come to thee unsought;

Love is the divine Irene,—

It is given, and not bought.