Celestial Bodies Poem by David Mitchell

The earth each day travels her weary round,
Partly in sunlight, partly in darkness hid;
Around the sun she goes without a sound,
And nothing her trajectory can forbid:

The sun shines forth, spreading his finite flame
As far as any one might ever see,
But he is only worth being called that name,
Because of life, that here he makes to be.

The mournful moon, wan, through the night sky shines,
Her sad face sad at the earth’s evil she sees,
And through the sky to wander she resigns,
A beauteous crescent floating through night’s breeze.

The stars are glittering in unlighted skies,
They are not bright, but light even so they bear,
They are there not only when the moon doth rise,
But in our daytime their fair light they share.

The other planets run around the sun;
And seem at night like other stars to appear,
As they their courses of various lengths run,
Completing each his circumsolar year.

And other planets other stars surround,
But for some reason they do not, like ours,
Bear life—why is this? Man hath never found
Out why, no more why pass these temporal hours.

The earth each day travels her weary round,
Partly in sunlight, partly in darkness hid;
Around the sun she goes without a sound,
And nothing her trajectory can forbid.

(Monday,12th September,2005.)