Page:King Alfred's Version of the Consolations of Boethius.djvu/297



Save the wise ones    who knew before,

That many stars    a motion wider

Have in the heavens,    some, however,

Run more straitly    round the axle's end,

And move more widely    when round its middle

They urge their race? One of these orbs

Is Saturn called;    in some thirty winters

He girdles round    this globe of earth.

Boötes also    brightly shines,

Another star    that to his station

In years as many    moves round,

Even to the place    from which he parted.

What mortal is there    that marvels not

How that some stars    sink in ocean,

Under the sea-waves,    as men do suppose?

Some also deem    that the sun does so;

But none the less false    is this their fancy,

For neither at even    nor in early morning

Is he nearer the ocean    than at high noon.

Yet do men deem        that he dives to ocean,

Into the sea,    when he sinks to setting.

Who in the world    wonders not

At the full moon,    when in a moment

She is robbed of her beauty    beneath the clouds,

With darkness covered? What mortal cannot

See with wonder    the ways of all stars,

Why in bright weather    they beam not forth

Before the sun,    when such is their custom

In the middle of night    before the moon,

When clear is heaven? How many a man,