If to the heavens you lift your eyes When Winter reigns o'er our Northern skies, And snow-cloud none the zenith mars, At Yule-tide midnight these your stars: Low in the South see bleak-blazing Sirius; Above him hang Betelgeuse, Procyon wan; Wild-eyed to West of him, Rigel and Bellatrix, And rudd-red Aldebaran journeying on. High in night's roof-tree beams twinkling Capella; Vega and Deneb prowl low in the North; Far to the East roves the Lion-heart, Regulus; While the twin sons of Zeus to'rd the zenith gleam forth. But when Midsummer Even in man's sleep-drowsed hours Refreshes for daybreak its dew-bright flowers, Though three of these Night Lights aloft remain, For nine, if you gaze, you will gaze in vain. Yet comfort find, for, far-shining there, See golden Arcturus and cold Altair; Crystalline Spica, and, strange to scan, Blood-red Antares, foe to Man. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...PINE-TREES AND THE SKY: EVENING by RUPERT BROOKE A VALEDICTION: OF WEEPING by JOHN DONNE IT COULDN'T BE DONE by EDGAR ALBERT GUEST MODERN LOVE: 30 by GEORGE MEREDITH ON THE DEATH OF A CAT by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI TO THE CUCKOO (1) by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH |