To A Star Seen At Twilight

Skywatcher Cory Poole captured this photograph of Venus and Jupiter

in the evening skies over Redding, California in 2012.

Hail solitary star!

That shinest from thy far blue height,

And overlookest Earth

And Heaven, companionless in light!

The rays around thy brow

Are an eternal wreath for thee;

Yet thou'rt proud, like man

Though thy broad mirror is the sea,

And thy calm home eternity!

Shine on, night-bosomed star!

And through its realms thy soul's eye dart,

And count each age of light,

For their eternal wheel thou art

Thou dost roll into the past days,

Year, and ages too,

And naught thy giant progress stays.

I love to gaze upon

Thy speaking face, thy calm, fair brow,

And feel my spirit dark

And deep, grow bright and pure as thou.

Like thee it stands alone:

Like thee its native home is night,

But there the likeness ends,-

It beams not with thy steady light.

Its upward path is high,

But not so high as thine-thou'rt far

Above the reach of clouds,

Of storms, of wreck, oh lofty star!

I would all men might look

Upon thy pure sublimity,

And in their bosoms drink

Thy loveliness and light like me;

For who in all the world

Could gaze upon thee thus, and feel

Aught in his nature base,

Or mean, or low, around him steal!

Shine on companionless

As now thou seem'st. Thou art the throne

Of thy own spirit, star!

And mighty things must be alone.

Alone the ocean heaves,

Or calms his bosom into sleep;

Alone each mountain stands

Upon its basis broad and deep;

Alone through the heavens comets sweep,

Those burning worlds which God has thrown

Upon the universe in wrath,

As if He hated them-their path

No stars, no suns may follow, none-

'Tis great, 'tis great to be alone!

"To A Star Seen At Twilight"

John Rollin  Ridge

(1827-1867)
Also known as Cheesquatalawny and Yellow Bird

Writer and poet of the Cherokee Nation

 Founding editor of "The Sacramento Bee" and

author of "The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murrieta"
(1854)

The first novel written by an American Indian in America.