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198 SAECLA FERARUM

BY WILLIAM ELLERY LEONARD

I

when at last the million flags were stacked

And all the Chiefs had signed the Great Peace Pact,

I saw before a winter's dawn the stars,

In skies as strange as if I saw from Mars:

The Dipper toppling on its handle-end,

Arcturus under, carrying out the bend;

Orion's Oblong tilted, twisted, slim,

With Sirius spurting fire atop of him;

The V of Taurus poised upon its point,

And moonless Dragon sprawling out of joint,

With Jupiter so bright, a fool had said

A comet's tail was arching from its head....

Aratus, when he sang his Caralogue,

Saw not the Shining Ones so far agog;

And no witch-woman with a Libyan cry

E'er charmed the Constellations so awry....

II

And then across the frozen marshes leapt

A train's fierce whistle while my townsmen slept;