Analysis of Star-Gazing
John Boyle O'Reilly 1844 (Dowth) – 1890 (Boston)
LET be what is: why should we strive and wrestle
With awkward skill against a subtle doubt?
Or pin a mystery 'neath our puny pestle,
And vainly try to bray its secret out?
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?
Or, past all suns, to find the awful center
Round which they meanly wind a servile road;
All, will it raise us or degrade, to enter
Where that world's Shakespeare towers almost to God?
No, no; far better, 'lords of all creation''
To strut our ant-hill, and to take our ease;
To look aloft and say, ' That constellation
Was lighted there our regal sight to please!'
We owe no thanks to so-called men of science,
Who demonstrate that earth, not sun, goes round;
'Twere better think the sun a mere appliance
To light man's villages and heat his ground.
There seems no good in asking or in humbling;
The mind incurious has the most of rest;
If we can live and laugh and pray, not grumbling,
'Tis all we can do here—and 'tis the best.
The throbbing brain will burst its tender raiment
With futile force, to see by finite light
How man's brief earning and eternal payment
Are weighed as equal in th' Infinite sight.
'Tis all in vain to struggle with abstraction—
The milky way that tempts our mental glass;
The study for mankind is earth-born action;
The highest wisdom, let the wondering pass.
The Lord knows best: He gave us thirst for learning;
And deepest knowledge of His work betrays
No thirst left waterless. Shall our soul-yearning,
Apart from all things, be a quenchless blaze?
Scheme | ABAB XCXC DEDE FGFG FHCH FXFX GIGI JKJK LMLM BHXH GNGN LOLO |
---|---|
Poetic Form | Quatrain (92%) |
Metre | 11111111010 1101010101 110100110101 0101111101 11111111010 01011101 11011101011 1101111111 11110101010 1101110101 111100101111 0111111111 110111011110 1111010101 111110111010 110101101 111011101010 111101110 110101111 11110110111 11111101010 111110101 11111101110 111110111 11110111010 111011011101 1101011010 11011010111 11111111110 110111111 11010101010 1111000111 111101010100 01110111 111101011100 1111110101 0101111101 110111111 11110001010 111100111001 11011101010 01011110101 01011111110 01010101001 01111111110 0101011101 1111110110 011111011 |
Closest metre | Iambic hexameter |
Characters | 2,169 |
Words | 397 |
Sentences | 18 |
Stanzas | 12 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 141 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 33 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:59 min read
- 93 Views
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"Star-Gazing" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/22044/star-gazing>.
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