Page:Poems, now first collected, Stedman, 1897.djvu/216

 ASTRA CAELI

the Carib Sea to-night

The stars hang low and near

From the inexplicable dome,—

Nearer, more close to sight,

Than from the skies which bound the stern gray sea

That girts our northern home.

Aftward the sister Crosses be,

And yonder to the lee

One burning cresset glows—a sphere

With light beyond a new moon's rays,

As if some world of vanished souls shone clear

And straight before our gaze.

Were now his spirit bright,—

Not veiled, nor dumb,—

My brother's, with the smile of years ago, 196