COLOSSAL orb of space, Sparkling with diamond Of countless star on star, All whirling with wild grace In their enwoven dance Illimitably far, What lies beyond Your vasty hollow girdled by that bright River of stellar spray We call the Milky Way? Immeasurable ball, Cornpassed and clasped in light, Can you be all, A flock of fireflies circling in the night, A maze of jewels that the toss of Chance Let fall, Sun, planet, asteroid, One globe of glories in the utter void? What lies beyond? Does the sheer Dark immerse Infinity, drowning the last faint gold Of fleeting comets, lost and vagabond? Or is this astral universe, All that our utmost vision may behold, But one amidst a host of star-strewn spheres, Each zoned with its own stream Of softer gleam, Perchance each dowered with wonder, love and tears? What lies beyond? The puny human heart still stirs Against those flaming barriers, That proud, impenetrable dome Of fire and ether, seeking for a home, A Soul that shall respond To all its questions, longings and despairs. Is space but raiment that the Spirit wears, A gem-embroidered mantle to conceal And yet reveal In splendors of surprise Beauty ineffable, Immanuel? Or shall we rise, Higher than dream of Dante ever trod, From star to star, from empyrean on To empyrean, till the sun that shone Over our vexed mortality be wan, Through life on life, eternal range From form to form, from change to change, To find the Unknown God?