“The Poet and the Star”

 

A poet sang to a star, 
Ay, sang out his soul―to die; 
But ever the crimson heart 
Of the star beat in the sky. 
The poet sang to one star, 
Ay, sang out his soul―alone; 
But the star with the crimson heart 
For a world of poets shone. 

“The Poet and the Star” as it appears in Higginson’s When the Birds Go North Again (1898).