Episode 17: The Galaxy

                                THE GALAXY

by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Torrent of light and river of the air,
Along whose bed the glimmering stars are seen
Like gold and silver sands in some ravine
Where mountain streams have left their channels bare!
The Spaniard sees in thee the pathway, where
His patron saint descended in the sheen
Of his celestial armor, on serene
And quiet nights, when all the heavens were fair.
Not this I see, nor yet the ancient fable
Of Phaeton’s wild course, that scorched the skies
Where’er the hoofs of his hot coursers trod;
But the white drifts of worlds o’er chasms of sable,
   The star-dust, that is whirled aloft and flies
   From the invisible chariot-wheels of God.