Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.
Poems of Fancy: III. Mythical: Mystical: LegendaryThe Comet
Charles Sangster (1822–1893)E
To track the wild illimitable space,
Till sure propitiation has been made
For the divine commission unperformed!
What was thy crime? Ahasuerus’ curse
Were not more stern on earth than thine in heaven!
For grave rebellion banished from thy peers,
Compelled to watch the calm, immortal stars
Circling in rapture the celestial void,
While the avenger follows in thy train
To spur thee on to wretchedness eterne?
From which she flies in terror so profound,
And with such whirl of torment in her breast,
That mighty earthquakes yawn where’er she treads
While War makes red its terrible right hand,
And Famine stalks abroad all lean and wan?
As the ideal visions of the seer,
Or gentlest fancy that e’er floated down
Imagination’s bright, unruffled stream,
Wedding the thought that was too deep for words
To the low breathings of inspirèd song.
Of the poor Babe at Bethlehem, that lay
In the coarse manger at the crowded Inn,
Didst thou, perhaps a bright exalted star,
Refuse to swell the grand, harmonious lay,
Jealous as Herod of the birth divine?
Pierced the Redeemer’s brow, didst thou disdain
To weep, when all the planetary worlds
Were blinded by the fulness of their tears?
E’en to the flaming sun, that hid his face
At the loud cry, “Lama Sabachthani!”
In the dark councils of remotest Hell,
Where the dread scheme was perfected that sealed
Thy disobedience and accruing doom.
Like Adam’s sons, hast thou, too, forfeited
The blest repose that never pillowed Sin?
Pale Science, searching by the midnight lamp
Through the vexed mazes of the human brain,
Still fails to read the secret of its soul
As the superb enigma flashes by,
A loosed Prometheus burning with disdain.