The Pearl and Other Poems

B.R. Mullikin

Ah! The Stars

Ah! the stars: how they shine
with that dull and opiate light,
as if showing but never giving
that truer form of sight.
But there, they form, they take their shape! —
Such warriors myths and Men:
all outlines of a former glory
made vain when put to pen.

Come! — Let those stars be what they were
far before our meddled dreams:
When the cold air chilled evening frost
and the fire of the sun was lost
to luminescent silver beams.