Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/799

 GEORGE DARLEY

651 The Fallen Star

STAR is gone ! a star is gone ' LTherc is a blank in Heaven; One of the cherub choir has done His airy course this even.

He sat upon the orb of fire

That hung for ages there, And lent his music to the choir

That haunts the nightly air.

But when his thousand years are pass'd,

With a cherubic sigh He vanish'd with his car at last,

For even cherubs die'

Hear how his angel-brothers mourn The minstrels of the spheres

Each chiming sadly in his turn And dropping splendid tears.

The planetary sisters all

Join in the fatal song, And weep this hapless brother's fall,

Who sang with them so long.

But deepest of the choral band

The Lunar Spirit sings, And with a bass-according hand

Sweeps all her sullen strings.

From the deep chambers of the dome

Where sleepless Uriel lies, His rude harmonic thunders come

Mingled with mighty sighs.

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