Stars (Davies)

Stars written by William Henry Davies

From "The Bird of Paradise", 1914

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One night I saw ten stars take wing —
Like flowers to butterflies — and fly;
Then I lay down to sleep, a child,
Though when I woke a man was I.

But when I saw the stars again,
So steadfast in their heavenly home;
The same ten thousand years ago,
The same ten thousand years to come —

Methought, what are they laughing at —
How close our cradles are to graves?
Do they, in their eternal pride,
Make merry at our little lives?

And sure, the Moon was laughing too;
The great, white Moon, that I could see
Shaking her sides, low in the west,
Like a big rattle in a tree.

This work is in the public domain in countries where the copyright term is the author's life plus 70 years or less.