Hark how the tremulous night-wind is passing in joy- laden sighs!
Soft through my window it comes like the fanning of pinions angelic,Whispering to cease from myself, and look out on the infinite skies-Out on the orb-studded night, and the crescent effulgence of Dian;Out on the far-gleaming star-dust that marks where the angels have trod;Out on the gem-pointed Cross, and the glittering pomp of Orion,Flaming in measureless azure, the coronal jewels of God.
James Brunton Stephens
General Notes.-The lines quoted are dactyllic (think of the words tremulous, whispering, infinite, measureless, coronal). The passage is from Convict Once. A woman looks forth into the night. Dian is Diana, the moon goddess. The Cross every child knows, Orion, the mighty hunter, has a constellation of which certain stars resemble a saucepan. Are the stars set in measureless azure, or is the background black? Find out foryourselves. Make a list of poetical quotations referring to the stars, and write any star-legend that you know.
