Songs of the Night

Music beneath the stars — remembering him
Who music loved, and who on such a night
Had, through white paths celestial, winged his flight,
Hearing the chanting of the cherubim, —
Which even our ears seem now to apprehend,
Rising and falling in waves of splendid sound
That bear our grieving spirits from the ground
And with eternal things lift them and blend.
Now Bach’s great Aria charms the starlit dark;
Now soars the Largo, high angelical,
Soothing all mortal sorrow on that breath;
And now, O sweet and sovereign strain! Now hark
Of mighty Beethoven the rise and fall.
— Such music ’neath the stars abolished death.

O veil of stars! O dread magnificence!
Not unto man, O not to man is given
The power to grasp with human sight and sense
Him, clothed upon by all the stars of heaven.
And thou, O infinite littleness! not more
Doth infinite distance and immensity
That Presence veil, whom fain we would adore
If mortals might the immortal dimly see.
Atoms and stars alike the Eternal hide,
Nor know we if in light or darkness dwells
The Ever Living. No voice from out the wide
Intense of starlight the great secret tells, —
No word nor sign in earth or skies above, —
Save one, the Godhead in the eyes of love.