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"This Earth, It Is Also a Star," from Dreams and Dust

by Don Marquis

Where the singers of Saturn find tongue,
   Where the Galaxy's lovers embrace,
Our world and its beauty are sung!
   They lean from their casements to trace
   If our planet still spins in its place;
Faith fables the thing that we are,
   And Fantasy laughs and gives chase:
This earth, it is also a star!

  Round the sun, that is fixed, and hung
   For a lamp in the darkness of space
We are whirled, we are swirled, we are flung;
   Singing and shining we race
   And our light on the uplifted face
Of dreamer or prophet afar
   May fall as a symbol of grace:
This earth, it is also a star!

  Looking out where our planet is swung
   Doubt loses his writhen grimace,
Dry hearts drink the gleams and are young;—
   Where agony's boughs interlace
   His Garden some Jesus may pace,
Lifting, the wan avatar,
   His soul to this light as a vase!
This earth, it is also a star!

  Great spirits in sorrowful case
   Yearn to us through the vapors that bar:
Canst think of that, soul, and be base?—
   This earth, it is also a star!

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