| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | Lucifer in Starlight | | By George Meredith (1828–1909) |
| | | ON a starr’d night Prince Lucifer uprose. | |
| Tired of his dark dominion swung the fiend | |
| Above the rolling ball in cloud part screen’d, | |
| Where sinners hugg’d their spectre of repose. | |
| Poor prey to his hot fit of pride were those. | 5 |
| And now upon his western wing he lean’d, | |
| Now his huge bulk o’er Afric’s sands careen’d, | |
| Now the black planet shadow’d Arctic snows. | |
| Soaring through wider zones that prick’d his scars | |
| With memory of the old revolt from Awe, | 10 |
| He reach’d a middle height, and at the stars, | |
| Which are the brain of heaven, he look’d, and sank. | |
| Around the ancient track march’d, rank on rank, | |
| The army of unalterable law. | | | | |
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