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 wrestleA
With awkward skill against a subtle doubtB
Or pin a mystery 'neath our puny pestleA
And vainly try to bray its secret outB
-
What boots it me to gaze at other planetsC
And speculate on sensate beings thereD
It comforts not that since the moon began itsE
Well ordered course it knew no breath of airD
-
There may be men and women up in VenusF
Where science finds both summer green and snowG
But are we happier asking '' Have they seen usF
And like us earth men do they yearn to knowG
-
On greater globes than ours men may be greaterH
For all things here in fair proportion runI
But will it make our poor cup any sweeterH
To think a nobler Shakespeare thrills the sunI
-
Or that our sun is but itself a minorH
Like this dark earth a tenth rate satelliteJ
That swings submissive round an orb divinerH
Whose day is lightning with our day for nightJ
-
Or past all suns to find the awful centerH
Round which they meanly wind a servile roadK
All will it raise us or degrade to enterH
Where that world's Shakespeare towers almost to GodL
-
No no far better 'lords of all creation''I
To strut our ant hill and to take our easeM
To look aloft and say ' That constellationI
Was lighted there our regal sight to please '-
-
We owe no thanks to so called men of scienceN
Who demonstrate that earth not sun goes roundO
'Twere better think the sun a mere applianceN
To light man's villages and heat his groundO
-
There seems no good in asking or in humblingP
The mind incurious has the most of restQ
If we can live and laugh and pray not grumblingP
'Tis all we can do here and 'tis the bestQ
-
The throbbing brain will burst its tender raimentQ
With futile force to see by finite lightQ
How man's brief earning and eternal paymentQ
Are weighed as equal in th' Infinite sightQ
-
'Tis all in vain to struggle with abstractionI
The milky way that tempts our mental glassR
The study for mankind is earth born actionI
The highest wisdom let the wondering passR
-
-
The Lord knows best He gave us thirst for learningP
And deepest knowledge of His work betraysS
No thirst left waterless Shall our soul yearningP
Apart from all things be a quenchless blazeS

John Boyle O'reilly



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