Page:Poems Jackson.djvu/334

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238
POEMS.
When night falls on the earth, the sky
Looks like a wide, a boundless main.
Who knows what voyagers sail there?
Who names the ports they seek and gain?

Are not the stars like beacons set
To guide the argosies that go
From universe to universe,
Our little world above, below?—

On their great errands solemn bent,
In their vast journeys unaware
Of our small planet's name or place
Revolving in the lower air.

O thought too vast! O thought too glad!
An awe most rapturous it stirs.
From world to world God's beacons shine:
God means to save his mariners!


SONGS OF BATTLE.
OLD as the world—no other things so old:
Nay, older than the world, else, how had sprung
Such lusty strength in them when earth was young?—
Stand valor and its passion hot and bold,
Insatiate of battle. How, else, told
Blind men, born blind, that red was fitting tongue
Mute, eloquent, to show how trumpets rung
When armies charged and battle-flags unrolled?