INCOMPARABLE white galaxy of suns!
O stars of song whose lustre blinds the day —
Æschylus, Homer, Shakespeare,—deathless ones
Holding on high your proud and lonely way! —
Rulers of Night’s domain of domeless space,
Transcendent thrones, victorious over Time,
Slaying with splendor from your distant place
A thousand flickering satellites of rhyme! —
God! what are we, that underneath such skies
We dare to light our tapers! From afar
The constellations watch this mad emprise :
A puny candle challenging a star!
Frederic Lawrence Knowles.