Choose Something Like a Star O Star (the fairest one in sight) Say something to us we can learn by heart
{There's one somewhere in the sky} {There's one somewhere in the sky} {There's one somewhere in the sky} {There's one somewhere in the sky}
..the mob is swayed To carry praise or blame too far We may choose something like a star To stay our minds on And be staid
-- Original poem --
O Star (the fairest one in sight) We grant your loftiness the right To some obscurity of cloud -- It will not do to say of night Since dark is what brings out your light Some mystery becomes the proud But to be wholly taciturn In your reserve is not allowed
Say something to us we can learn By heart and when alone repeat Say something! And it says 'I burn.' But say with what degree of heat Talk Fahrenheit, talk Centigrade Use language we can comprehend Tell us what elements you blend
It gives us strangely little aid But does tell something in the end And steadfast as Keats' Eremite Not even stooping from its sphere It asks a little of us here It asks of us a certain height So when at times the mob is swayed To carry praise or blame too far We may choose something like a star To stay our minds on and be staid