The Northern Lights and the Stars

THE stars are watching at their posts
And raining silence from the sky,
And, guarded by the heavenly hosts,
Earth closes her day-wearied eye.

A reign of holy quietness
Replaces the tumultuous light,
And Nature’s weary tribes confess
The calm beatitude of Night :

When from the Arctic pit up-steams
The Boreal fire’s portentous glare,
And, bursting into arrowy streams,
Hurls horrid splendors on the air.

The embattled meteors scale the arch,
And toss their lurid banners wide ;
Heaven reels with their tempestuous march,
And quivers in the flashing tide.

Against the everlasting stars,
Against the old empyreal Right,
They vainly wage their anarch wars,
In vain they urge their fatuous light.

The skies may flash and meteors glare,
And Hell invade the spheral school ;
But Law and Love are sovereign there,
And Sirius and Orion rule.

The stars are watching at their posts,
Again the Silences prevail ;
The meteor crew, like guilty ghosts,
Have slunk to the infernal jail.

The truths of God forever shine,
Though Error glare and Falsehood rage ;
The cause of Order is divine,
And Wisdom rules from age to age.

Faith, Hope, and Love, your time abide !
Let Hades marshal all his hosts,
The heavenly forces with you side,
The stars are watching at their posts.