Star-gazing Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis
Rhyme Scheme: ABAB CDED FGFG HIHI HJHJ HKHL IMI NONO PQPQ QQQQ IRIR PSPS| LET be what is why should we strive and wrestle | A |
| With awkward skill against a subtle doubt | B |
| Or pin a mystery 'neath our puny pestle | A |
| And vainly try to bray its secret out | B |
| - | |
| What boots it me to gaze at other planets | C |
| And speculate on sensate beings there | D |
| It comforts not that since the moon began its | E |
| Well ordered course it knew no breath of air | D |
| - | |
| There may be men and women up in Venus | F |
| Where science finds both summer green and snow | G |
| But are we happier asking '' Have they seen us | F |
| And like us earth men do they yearn to know | G |
| - | |
| On greater globes than ours men may be greater | H |
| For all things here in fair proportion run | I |
| But will it make our poor cup any sweeter | H |
| To think a nobler Shakespeare thrills the sun | I |
| - | |
| Or that our sun is but itself a minor | H |
| Like this dark earth a tenth rate satellite | J |
| That swings submissive round an orb diviner | H |
| Whose day is lightning with our day for night | J |
| - | |
| Or past all suns to find the awful center | H |
| Round which they meanly wind a servile road | K |
| All will it raise us or degrade to enter | H |
| Where that world's Shakespeare towers almost to God | L |
| - | |
| No no far better 'lords of all creation'' | I |
| To strut our ant hill and to take our ease | M |
| To look aloft and say ' That constellation | I |
| Was lighted there our regal sight to please ' | - |
| - | |
| We owe no thanks to so called men of science | N |
| Who demonstrate that earth not sun goes round | O |
| 'Twere better think the sun a mere appliance | N |
| To light man's villages and heat his ground | O |
| - | |
| There seems no good in asking or in humbling | P |
| The mind incurious has the most of rest | Q |
| If we can live and laugh and pray not grumbling | P |
| 'Tis all we can do here and 'tis the best | Q |
| - | |
| The throbbing brain will burst its tender raiment | Q |
| With futile force to see by finite light | Q |
| How man's brief earning and eternal payment | Q |
| Are weighed as equal in th' Infinite sight | Q |
| - | |
| 'Tis all in vain to struggle with abstraction | I |
| The milky way that tempts our mental glass | R |
| The study for mankind is earth born action | I |
| The highest wisdom let the wondering pass | R |
| - | |
| - | |
| The Lord knows best He gave us thirst for learning | P |
| And deepest knowledge of His work betrays | S |
| No thirst left waterless Shall our soul yearning | P |
| Apart from all things be a quenchless blaze | S |
John Boyle O'reilly
(1)
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About Star-gazing
Star-gazing is a poem by John Boyle O'reilly. This page includes the poem text, poet information, related topics, comments, and similar poems.
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