| Samuel Waddington, comp. The Sonnets of Europe. 1888. | | | | The Appointment | | By Sully Prudhomme (1839–1907) |
| | Translated by Arthur O’Shaughnessy
’TIS late; the astronomer in his lonely height, | |
| Exploring all the dark, descries afar | |
| Orbs that like distant isles of splendour are, | |
| And mornings whitening in the infinite. | |
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| Like winnowed grain the worlds go by in flight, | 5 |
| Or swarm in glistening spaces nebular; | |
| He summons one dishevelled wandering star,— | |
| Return ten centuries hence on such a night. | |
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| The star will come. It dare not by one hour | |
| Cheat Science, or falsify her calculation; | 10 |
| Men will have passed, but watchful in the tower | |
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| Man shall remain in sleepless contemplation; | |
| And should all men have perished there in turn, | |
| Truth in their place would watch that star’s return. | | | | |
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