With my foot on the rock below,

And whichever way it may blow

I meet it face to face,

As a brave man meets his foe.

And while we wrestle and strive,

My master, the miller, stands

And feeds me with his hands;

For he knows who makes him thrive,

Who makes him lord of lands.

On Sundays I take my rest;

Church-going bells begin

Their low, melodious din;

I cross my arms on my breast,

And all is peace within.

H. W. Longfellow

Daybreak

Daybreak

On the tidal mud, just before sunset,

dozens of starfishes

were creeping. It was

as though the mud were a sky

and enormous, imperfect stars

moved across it as slowly

as the actual stars cross heaven.

All at once they stopped,

and as if they had simply

increased their receptivity

to gravity they sank down

into the mud; they faded down

into it and lay still; and by the time

pink of sunset broke across them

they were as invisible

as the true stars at daybreak.

Galway Kinnell

The Moon and a Cloud

The Moon and a Cloud

Sometimes I watch the moon at night,

No matter be she near or far;

Up high, or in a leafy tree

Caught laughing like a bigger star.

Tonight the west is full of clouds;

The east is full of stars that fly

Into the cloud’s dark foliage,

And the moon will follow by and by.

I see a dark brown shabby cloud –

The moon has gone behind its back;

I looked to see her turn it white –

She turned it to a lovely black.

A lovely cloud, a jet-black cloud;

It shines with such a glorious light,

That I am glad with all my heart

She turned it black instead of white.

W. H. Davies

The Star

The Star

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

How I wonder what you are!

Up above the world so high,

Like a diamond in the sky.

When the blazing sun is gone,

When he nothing shines upon,

Then you show your little light,

Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.

Then the traveller in the dark,

Thanks you for your tiny spark,

He could not see which way to go,

If you did not twinkle so.

In the dark blue sky you keep,

And often through my curtains peep,

For you never shut your eye,

Till the sun is in the sky.

As your bright and tiny spark

Lights the traveller in the dark—

Though I know not what you are,

Twinkle, twinkle, little star.

Jane Taylor

Star

Star

Twinkle, twinkle, little star

Scientists tell us what you are.

Hydrogen . . . and helium?

Oxygen and nitrogen . . .

Twinkle, twinkle, little star

Is that really what you are?

Twinkle, twinkle, little spark

Bravely twinkling in the dark

We come out to gaze at you,

When we worry what to do.

We find up there a ray of light.

A hope, a comfort in the night

Twinkle, twinkle little star!