THE STAR
by: Edgar Lee Masters (1868-1950)
- AM a certain
god
- Who slipped down from a remote height
- To a place of pools and stars.
- And I sat invisible
- Amid a clump of trees
- To watch the mad men.
-
- There were cries and groans about me,
- And shouts of laughter and curses.
- Figures passed by with self-absorbed contempt
- Wrinkling in bitter smiles about their lips.
- Others hurried on with set eyes
- Pursuing something.
- Then I said this is the place for mad Frederick--
- Mad Frederick will be here.
-
- But everywhere I could see
- Figures sitting or standing
- By little pools.
- Some seemed grown into the soil
- And were helpless.
- And of these some were asleep.
- Others laughed the laughter
- That comes from dying men
- Trying to face Death.
- And others said "I should be content."
- And others said "I will fly."
- Whereupon sepulchral voices muttered,
- As of creatures sitting or hanging head down
- From limbs of the trees,
- "We will not let you."
- And others looked in their pools
- And clasped hands and said "Gone--all gone."
- By other pools there were dead bodies,
- Some of youth, some of age.
- They had given up the fight,
- They had drunk poisoned water,
- They had searched
- Until they fell--
- All had gone mad.
-
- Then I, a certain god,
- Curious to know
- What it is in pools and stars
- That drives men and women
- Over the earth in this quest,
- Waited for mad Frederick
- And then I heard his step.
-
- I knew that long ago
- He sat by one of these pools
- Enraptured of a star's image
- And that hands, for his own good,
- As they said,
- Dumped clay into the pool
- And blotted his star.
- And I knew that after that
- He had said: "They will never spy again
- Upon my ecstasy.
- They will never see me watching one star.
- I will fly by rivers
- And by little brooks
- And by the edge of lakes
- And by little bends of water
- Where no wind blows,
- And glance at stars as I pass--
- They will never spy again
- Upon my ecstasy."
-
- And I knew that mad Frederick
- In this flight
- Through years of restlessness and madness
- Was caught by the image of a star
- In a mere beyond a meadow,
- Down from a hill, under a forest,
- And had said:
- "No one sees;
- Here I can find life
- Through vision of eternal things!"
- But they had followed him.
- They stood on the brow of the hill,
- And when they saw him gazing into the water
- They rolled a great stone down the hill,
- And shattered the star's image.
- Then mad Frederick fled with laughter.
- It echoed through the wood.
- And he said, "I will look for moons.
- I will punish them who disturb me,
- By worshipping moons."
- But when he sought moons
- They left him alone.
- And he did not want the moons.
- And he was alone, and sick from the moons,
- And covered as with a white blankness,
- Which was the worst madness of all.
-
- And I, a certain god,
- Waiting for mad Frederick
- To enter this place of pools and stars,
- Saw him at last.
- With a sigh he looked about upon his fellows
- Sitting or standing by their pools.
- And some of the pools were covered with scum
- And some were glazed as of filth
- And some were grown with weeds
- And some were congealed as of the north wind
- And a few were yet pure
- And held the star's image.
- And by these some sat and were glad.
- Others had lost the vision:
- The star was there, but its meaning vanished.
- And mad Frederick going here and there
- With no purpose
- Only curious and interested
- As I was, a certain god,
- Came by a certain pool
- And saw a star.
-
- He shivered.
- He clasped his hands.
- He sank to his knees.
- He touched his lips to the water!
-
- Then voices from the limbs of the trees muttered:
- "There he is again."
- "He must be driven away."
- "The pool is not his."
- "He does not belong here."
- So as when bats fly in a cave
- They swooped from their hidings in the trees
- And dashed themselves in the pool.
- Then I saw what these flying things were.
- But no matter;
- They were thoughts evil and envious
- And selfish and dull,
- But with power to destroy.
- And mad Frederick turned away from the pool
- And covered his eyes with his arms.
- Then a certain god
- Of less power than mine
- Came and sat beside me and said:
- "Why do you allow this to be?
- They are all seeking,
- Why do you not let them find their heart's delight?
- Why do you allow this to be?"
- But I did not answer.
- The lesser god did not know
- That I have no power,
- That only the God has the power
- And that this must be
- In spite of all lesser gods.
-
- And I saw mad Frederick
- Arise and ascend to the top of a high hill.
- And I saw him find the star
- Whose image he had seen in the pool.
- Then he knelt and prayed:
- "Give me to understand, O star,
- Your inner self, your eternal spirit,
- That I may have you and not images of you,
- So that I may know what has driven me through the world,
- And may cure my soul.
- For I know that you are Eternal Love
- And I can never escape you.
- And if I cannot escape you
- Then I must serve you.
- And if I must serve you
- It must be to good and not ill--
- You have brought me from the forest of pools
- And the images of stars,
- Here to the hill's top.
- Where now do I go?
- And what shall I do?"
"The Star" is reprinted
from Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1916. Ed. William
Stanley Braithwaite. New York: Laurence J. Gomme, 1916. |
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POEMS BY EDGAR LEE MASTERS |
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