| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900. |
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| 1670. Isolation |
| | | By Josephine Preston Peabody |
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| O BROTHER Planets, unto whom I cry, | |
| Know ye, in all the worlds, a gladder thing | |
| Than this glad life of ours, this wandering | |
| Among the eternal winds that wander by? | |
| Ever to fly, with white star-faces set | 5 |
| Quenchless against the darkness, and the wet | |
| Pinions of all the storms,—on, on alone, | |
| With radiant locks outblown, | |
| And sun-strong eyes to see | |
| Into the sunless maze of all futurity! | 10 |
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| Not ours the little measure of the years, | |
| The bitter-sweet of summer that soon wanes, | |
| The briefer benison of springtime rains; | |
| Nay, but the thirst of all the living spheres, | |
| Full-fed with mighty draughts of dark and light,— | 15 |
| The soul of all the dawns, the love of night, | |
| The strength of deathless winters, and the boon | |
| Of endless summer noon. | |
| Look down, from star to star, | |
| And see the centuries,—a flock of birds, afar. | 20 |
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| Afar! But we, each one God’s sentinel, | |
| Lifting on high the torches that are His, | |
| Look forth to one another o’er the abyss, | |
| And cry, Eternity,—and all is well! | |
| So ever journey we, and only know | 25 |
| The way is His, and unto Him we go. | |
| Through all the voiceless desert of the air | |
| Through all the star-dust there, | |
| Where none has ever gone, | |
| Still singing, seeking still, we wander on and on. | 30 |
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| O brother Planets, ye to whom I cry, | |
| Yet hath a strange dream touched me; for a cloud | |
| Flared like a moth, within mine eyes. I bowed | |
| My head, and, looking down through all the sky, | |
| I saw the little Earth, far down below,— | 35 |
| The Earth that all the wandering winds do know. | |
| Like some ground-bird, the small, beloved one | |
| Fluttered about the sun. | |
| Ah, were that little star | |
| Only a signal-light of love for us, afar! | 40 |
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