To the Moon

Hail beauteous and inconstant!—Thou who roll'st Thy silver car around the realm of night, Queen of soft hours! how fanciful art thou In equipage and vesture.—Now thou com'st With slender horn piercing the western cloud, As erst on Judah's hills, when joyous throngs With trump and festival saluted thee; Anon thy waxing crescent 'mid the host Of constellations, like some fairy boat, Glides o'er the waveless sea; then as a bride Thou bow'st thy cheek behind a fleecy veil, Timid and fair; or, bright in regal robes, Dost bid thy full-orb'd chariot proudly roll, Sweeping with silent rein the starry path Up to the highest node,—then plunging low To seek dim Nadir in his misty cell.— 2Lov'st thou our Earth, that thou dost hold thy lamp To guide and cheer her, when the wearied Sun Forsakes her?—Sometimes, roving on, thou shedd'st The eclipsing blot ungrateful, on that sire Who feeds thy urn with light,—but sinking deep 'Neath the dark shadow of the earth dost mourn And find thy retribution. —Dost thou hold Dalliance with Ocean, that his mighty heart Tosses at thine approach, and his mad tides, Drinking thy favoring glance, more rudely lash Their rocky bulwark?—Do thy children trace Through crystal tube our coarser-featured orb Even as we gaze on thee?—With Euclid's art Perchance, from pole to pole, her sphere they span, Her sun loved tropicks—and her spreading seas Rich with their myriad isles. Perchance they mark Where India's cliffs the trembling cloud invade, Or Andes with his fiery banner flouts The empyrean,—where old Atlas towers,— Or that rough chain whence he of Carthage pour'd Terrors on Rome.—Thou, too, perchance, hast nursed Some bold Copernicus, or fondly call'd A Galileo forth, those sun-like souls Which shone in darkness, though our darkness fail'd To comprehend them.—Can'st thou boast, like earth, A Kepler, skilful pioneer and wise?— A sage to write his name among the stars Like glorious Herschel?—or a dynasty Like great Cassini's, which from sire to son Transmitted Science as a birthright seal'd? —Rose there some lunar Horrox,—to whose glance Resplendent Venus her adventurous course Reveal'd, even in his boyhood?—some La Place Luminous as the skies he sought to read?— Thou deign'st no answer,—or I fain would ask If since thy bright creation, thou hast seen Ought like a Newton, whose admitted eye The arcana of the universe explored Light's subtle ray its mechanism disclosed, The impetuous comet his mysterious lore Unfolded,—system after system rose, Eternal wheeling thro' the immense of space, And taught him of their laws.—Even angels stood Amaz'd, as when in ancient times they saw On Sinai's top, a mortal walk with God.— —But he to whom the secrets of the skies Were whisper'd—in humility adored, Breathing with childlike reverence the prayer, —"When on yon heavens, with all their orbs, I gaze, Jehovah!—what is man?"