Page:Songs, Legends, and Ballads.djvu/46

34 What boots it me to gaze at other planets,
 * And speculate on sensate beings there?

It comforts not that, since the moon began its
 * Well-ordered course, it knew no breath of air.

There may be men and women up in Venus,
 * Where science finds both summer-green and snow;

But are we happier asking, "Have they seen us?
 * And, like us earth-men, do they yearn to know?"

On greater globes than ours men may be greater.
 * For all things here in fair proportion run;

But will it make our poor cup any sweeter
 * To think a nobler Shakespeare thrills the sun?

Or, that our sun is but itself a minor,
 * Like this dark earth—a tenth-rate satellite.

That swings submissive round an orb diviner,
 * Whose day is lightning, with our day for night?