The Stars Go By by Fannie Stearns Davis

Under the Lake he growls and he groans, Tossing and twisting his frosty bones: Grim old Giant! -- but never we Will chop the ice out and set you free; Never we, while the moon rides high, And the stars go by, and the stars go by, As over the gray-glass Lake we fly!

Nearer, nearer, the black shores swing. Laugh and lean while the steel blades sing: Laugh, and slip into silence. -- See! The world is aching with splendor! Free, -- Free of our bodies our light souls fly Up, where the cold moon freezes the sky, -- Up, where the strange stars crowd into Space. -- Oh, have they stared into God's own Face? Folding their flames in the Flame of God, Over His terrible threshold trod?

Oh, we are thirsty of light, -- of light, -- Space, -- and silence -- and God -- to-night. How can we hide them forever, deep In our hearts from the dun days' struggle and sleep? Hide them, and know till we die, that we Are free of the flames of Eternity, -- Freer than falling stars are free?

Ah, but our bodies grow stiff and cold: Stars are shifting: the night is old. We must come back out of Space, and see How far it is to Eternity!

So, from the shadowy pine-tree-shore, Back to our bodies! swing free once more! Chase the blurred moon whisking away Down at our feet in the mirror gray: Laugh, and lean to the steel blades' song, Flying along, -- oh, flying along!

But -- there's a star shoots over the hill. Hush. For our souls are too thirsty still, Thirsty, trembling with utter light. Hush. We are going. O Worlds, good-night!