| Louis Untermeyer, ed. (1885–1977). Modern American Poetry. 1919. |
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| Bert Leston Taylor. 1866– |
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| 39. Canopus |
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| WHEN quacks with pills political would dope us, | |
| When politics absorbs the livelong day, | |
| I like to think about that star Canopus, | |
| So far, so far away. | |
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| Greatest of visioned suns, they say who list 'em; | 5 |
| To weigh it science almost must despair. | |
| Its shell would hold our whole dinged solar system, | |
| Nor even know 'twas there. | |
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| When temporary chairmen utter speeches, | |
| And frenzied henchmen howl their battle hymns, | 10 |
| My thoughts float out across the cosmic reaches | |
| To where Canopus swims. | |
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| When men are calling names and making faces, | |
| And all the world's ajangle and ajar, | |
| I meditate on interstellar spaces | 15 |
| And smoke a mild seegar. | |
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| For after one has had about a week of | |
| The argument of friends as well as foes, | |
| A star that has no parallax to speak of | |
| Conduces to repose. | 20 |
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