Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

By Joel EliasSpingarn

1716 Helios

OH, I am weary of a heart that brings

Star-worship even to the shining sun:

Rather a savage whose whole heart hath won

Radiance and joy from sunlight than whose wings

Flutter and fade before the twilight rings:

Why should we falter when the night is done,—

Dream-weavers, trembling in dim mists that stun

All things divorced from thought, and thought from things?

I am thy child, O Sun, as Julian was:

I crouch not in the shadows of my soul,

And grapple with dark terrors; nor, rewon,

Drink I of darkness when the shadows pass:

Even at death, when nearest is the goal,

I shall cry out to heaven, “The sun! the sun!”