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Page:King Alfred's Version of the Consolations of Boethius.djvu/300

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Call under heaven; he heralds day

To men in the boroughs; then he brings

The glorious sun, the same day for all.

Fair and shining is the forerunner,

East up-leaping the sun he leads;

And again after the sun to his setting glides,

West under world. When night comes,

His name the nations change for another,

And then they style him Star of evening.

More swift than the sun, once they have set,

He speeds past him, that star all noble,

Until over again in the east he rises,

To men appearing, the sun preceding.

Those noble orbs night from day

By the Lord's power have fairly parted,

Sun and moon, in high peace moving

As from the first the Father appointed.

You need not fear that these fair ones

Will ever be sated with this their service

Before doomsday come. Therein He deals,

Mankind's Maker, as Him meet seems;

For he suffers them not, the Sovran God,

To be at the same time on one side of heaven,

Lest they ruin the rest of creation.

But God Eternal all things guides,

The broad creation, in bonds of peace.

Dryness sometimes drives out wet;

Whiles they mingle, by the Master's craft,

Cold and heat. To highest heaven

The flame all bright sometimes flies

Light through the air, behind it leaving

The weight of the earthly, though for a while