A SONG OF THE STARS. BY ANNA BLACKWELL. ARGUMENT. The Planets, in their mazy dance, declare the joyousness of their harmonious life; at Ura nia's request, they offer the homage of their song to their great Parent, the Sun; then is heard from a distance the voice of the Earth, lamenting the various evils which she suffers, and her impending dissolution, in consequence of Man's ignorance of the laws of combined Order which govern the Universe, and which require him to cultivate and perfect the surface of his Planet, and thereby reuder her healthy and beautiful, that she may be fitted for admission among her sister orbs, who cannot receive her while continuing in an unharmonic state, into union with them. The Planets listen to the out-pouring of her grief, and with united voices appeal to the Sun in her behalf. The Solar Orb in reply, proclaims the Integrity of the Universe, and announces to them that the Earth, after passing through the ignorance and incoherence attendant on the early stages of developement, will be regenerated through the associated and ennobled energies of the human race, and will be admitted into the companionship of the Solar System, and of the Universe of GOD. The Planets raise an anthem of joy and worship to THE MOST HIGH, with which, choral res ponses from every region of the Universe are heard to blend in solemn and rejcicing harmony. JOYOUSLY on tireless pinions Woven of the purple light, Through the golden Sun's dominions Moving in immortal pleasure To a high harmonious measure, Twine in ethereal maze their dances bright. THE SONG OF THE PLANETS. We move in bliss through the fields of space, We hope no morning, we dread no night, The living wealth of our glorious dower. From the same Parent-Orb I draw my life, Crushes my being with its weight of gloom; I bear a race upon my sorrowing breast Conflict from morn to night, from night to morn; They curse the mockery of the sky serene! Hunger is on them all! they cry for food! Food for the soul, whose shrunk and darkened mood Whose thought Creation's wondrous sphere should trace, O'er wastes and deserts wandering, tempest-tossed, A dwarfed abortion 'mid the sons of light; And yet I spread my flowery vales for him, For him I raise my arching forests dim, And hang with pendant gems my caverned halls; For him my rivers flowing to the sea, For him my waves' eternal melody! The swelling joy of Spring's returning prime, The ripened beauty of glad Autumn-time, And speak the latent wealth that round him lies. My elements await but his command, With courser winds his lightest hest to fill; Follow with fiery zeal his guiding hand, And chain the chafing billows to his will; Rouse at his beck the lightning from its lair, And write his missives on the viewless air But he unconscious of his destined power, (Creation's frailest, mightiest extreme) Heeds not the summons of each freighted hour, Wastes the rich moments in his idle dream; Reads not my wisdom-pictured lore, nor hears Accords that harmonize with chiming spheres. I languish for his aid! my climates fail, O'erwhelmed beneath my woes, I sink, I die, So the sad Earth; the Planets list the sound, THE PRAYER OF THE PLANETS. Great Parent! hear the Earth And can it be that never Of her sad fate shall dart the living ray When shall her darkness kindle in the day We turn, O Sun! to thee; Sustained by thy rich life Our unformed spheres Struggled from Chaos dimly into light; Of our sad sister aid through discord's night We mourn, O Parent-Sun! Her grief and pain; When shall the Earth complete The golden chain Of our perfected orbs thy throne around? Her feet Tread our bright dance, while choral pæans sound For victory won? They ceased; and through the azure air As waves in solemn cadence break The stillness of some quiet lake, What time the evening breezes sigh Then all was silent, not a sound Thrilled through the arching blue around; But voiceless in its caverns hung; And hushed, as when on Ocean's breast THE DISCOURSE OF THE SUN. Forth from the blaze of the Eternal Throne To Being's utmost glimmering verge are thrown, Finding in virtue of attractive might. The Highest to the lowliest thus descends, And the extremes of Being's wondrous regions blends. To reach again the Fount whose wondrous flow In GoD all things are one; Essential Life, Calls into being. Know that to Create That on the growth of nascent forms doth wait, (Hidden in those, yet active,) 'gins display More of its light, in human forms enshrined, All things are born; and thus the Vital Ray New wealth of wisdom, beauty, joy, the while (Product of Ignorance,) and grief, and fear, Lost from the sparkling life, as from rich wine Its foul and bitter lees the generous years refine. Sorrow on blindness waits; the primal laws Of Wisdom, Love, and Use, not yet revealed, Pain, sternest guide! the groping seeker draws 'Neath Order's law (sole freedom!) to be healed; Order sublime, with which the Central Cause, As with a signet, all His worlds hath sealed; Order, the law of Love, which yet shall reign Supreme, absorbing and transforming Wrong and Pain. |