| Louis Untermeyer, ed. (1885–1977). Modern British Poetry. 1920. |
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| Rudyard Kipling. 1865– |
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| 51. An Astrologer's Song |
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| TO the Heavens above us | |
| O look and behold | |
| The Planets that love us | |
| All harnessed in gold! | |
| What chariots, what horses | 5 |
| Against us shall bide | |
| While the Stars in their courses | |
| Do fight on our side? | |
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| All thought, all desires, | |
| That are under the sun, | 10 |
| Are one with their fires, | |
| As we also are one: | |
| All matter, all spirit, | |
| All fashion, all frame, | |
| Receive and inherit | 15 |
| Their strength from the same. | |
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| (Oh, man that deniest | |
| All power save thine own, | |
| Their power in the highest | |
| Is mightily shown. | 20 |
| Not less in the lowest | |
| That power is made clear. | |
| Oh, man, if thou knowest, | |
| What treasure is here!) | |
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| Earth quakes in her throes | 25 |
| And we wonder for why! | |
| But the blind planet knows | |
| When her ruler is nigh; | |
| And, attuned since Creation | |
| To perfect accord, | 30 |
| She thrills in her station | |
| And yearns to her Lord. | |
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| The waters have risen, | |
| The springs are unbound— | |
| The floods break their prison, | 35 |
| And ravin around. | |
| No rampart withstands 'em, | |
| Their fury will last, | |
| Till the Sign that commands 'em | |
| Sinks low or swings past. | 40 |
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| Through abysses unproven | |
| And gulfs beyond thought, | |
| Our portion is woven, | |
| Our burden is brought. | |
| Yet They that prepare it, | 45 |
| Whose Nature we share, | |
| Make us who must bear it | |
| Well able to bear. | |
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| Though terrors o'ertake us | |
| We'll not be afraid. | 50 |
| No power can unmake us | |
| Save that which has made. | |
| Nor yet beyond reason | |
| Or hope shall we fall— | |
| All things have their season, | 55 |
| And Mercy crowns all! | |
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| Then, doubt not, ye fearful— | |
| The Eternal is King— | |
| Up, heart, and be cheerful, | |
| And lustily sing:— | 60 |
| What chariots, what horses | |
| Against us shall bide | |
| While the Stars in their courses | |
| Do fight on our side? | |
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