Charles Mackay

The Earth and the Stars

Said the Earth to the Stars, ‘Oh my sisters,
Fellow-travellers through this dread immensity,
Send a voice to my spirit and declare,
If, serenely as ye smile on me, and fair,
Ye are dwellings for all miseries, like me?

‘Oh tell me if in you, my glorious sisters,
Rules a tyrant like the one enthronèd here?
If death has ever enter'd in your climes,
And Suffering, and Calamity, and Crimes
Ever rob you of the children that you rear?

‘Oh tell me if in you, my myriad sisters,
The weak are ever trampled by the strong?
If Malice, and Intolerance, and Hate,
And Warfare, and Ambition to be great,
Ever cause the Right to suffer from the Wrong?

‘Oh tell me, silent sisters, are ye happy?
Are the multitudes that live beneath your skies,
Full of knowledge, unaccursed by such a ban
As man has ever issue dagainst man;
Are they happy, are they loving, are they wise?’

Said the Stars to the Earth—‘Oh mournful sister,
Rolling calmly through the calm infinity,
We have roll'd for countless ages on our track,
Ever onward—pressing onward—never back;—
There is progress both for us and for thee.

‘Thou wilt make, oh thou foolish little sister,
The full cycle of thy glory, in thy time:—
We are rolling on in ours for evermore;—
Look not backward—see Eternity before,
And free thyself of Sorrow and of Crime.

‘God who made thee, never meant thee, mournful sister,
To be fill'd with sin and grief eternally;
And the children that are born upon thy breast
Shall, in fulness of their Destiny, be blest:—
There is Progress for the Stars and for Thee.’