#WingedWordsWindsday: 2023/05/31 -- A Celebration of Star Lore

 

WINGED WORDS WINDSDAY

Compiled & Edited by Rob Chappell (@RHCLambengolmo)

Vol. 2, No. 31: May 31, 2023

 

A Celebration of Star Lore

 

“Astronomy: The World’s Oldest Science”

By the Editor

Adapted & Expanded from Cursus Honorum IX: 1 (August 2008)

                Astronomy – the scientific study of the stars and other celestial objects – is widely regarded as the world’s oldest science, it began in prehistoric times when early humans first looked up into the sky and wondered: “Why does the Sun rise in the east and set in the west each day?” “Why does the Moon change its shape every night in a monthly cycle?” “Why do the stars dance across the night sky in such regular patterns throughout the year?”

                Discovering the basic principles of astronomy helped our remote ancestors to develop an understanding of the calendar, which in turn led to the agricultural revolution after the last Ice Age. This interlinkage of astronomy, calendaring, and agriculture contributed to the invention of writing so that people could record important events that occurred during the passage of time. Some of the earliest examples of writing include records of astronomical events and their significance (for example, planetary motions and lunar festivals).

                Astronomy (one of the Seven Liberal Arts) underwent a major revolution with the invention of the telescope in the early 17th century CE and its use by the Italian physicist Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) to study the skies. With the magnifying power of the telescope, Galileo was able to discover sunspots, the phases of Venus, mountains and craters on the Moon, the four major satellites of Jupiter, and stars too dim to be seen with the naked eye. Galileo’s astronomical discoveries turned the medieval worldview upside down and inside out, paving the way for other scientific revolutions in the physical and biological sciences later on.

                Along with (and based on) observational studies of celestial objects, astronomy has sought to answer some of the profoundest questions that we have asked ourselves. How did the Universe begin, and how will it end? Does life exist beyond our world? What is humankind’s place in the cosmos? All these ideas – and many more – are studied by professional astronomers, with the enthusiastic support of amateur astronomers who make observations in their backyards with binoculars or small telescopes.

                The exploration of outer space over the past several decades has brought astronomy into the mainstream of public awareness. As crewed and automated spacecraft continue to push back the frontiers of human knowledge, answers to age-old questions give birth to completely new questions about the nature of the Universe. To begin your own journey of exploration, be sure to visit the following websites.

 

Resources for Further Exploration

·         https://astro.illinois.edu à Department of Astronomy at the University of Illinois

·         https://www.theoi.com/Text/AratusPhaenomena.html à The Phaenomena by Aratus is a versified introduction to astronomy from the 3^rd century BCE.

·         https://www.parkland.edu/Audience/Community-Business/Parkland-Presents/Planetarium à Staerkel Planetarium at Parkland College

 

Exterior view of the Staerkel Planetarium at Parkland College in Champaign, IL. (Photo Credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

 

“Stars”

By Sara Teasdale (1884-1933)

 

Alone in the night on a dark hill

With pines around me spicy and still,

 

And a heaven full of stars over my head,

White and topaz and misty red;

 

Myriads with beating hearts of fire

That aeons cannot vex or tire;

 

Up the dome of heaven like a great hill,

I watch them marching stately and still,

 

And I know that I am honored to be

Witness of so much majesty.

 

Gitanjali #78: “When the Creation Was New”

By Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941)

 

                When the creation was new and all the stars shone in their first splendor, the gods held their assembly in the sky and sang "Oh, the picture of perfection! the joy unalloyed!"

                But one cried of a sudden — "It seems that somewhere there is a break in the chain of light and one of the stars has been lost."

                The golden string of their harp snapped, their song stopped, and they cried in dismay — "Yes, that lost star was the best, she was the glory of all heavens! "

                From that day the search is unceasing for her, and the cry goes on from one to the other that in her the world has lost its one joy!

                Only in the deepest silence of night the stars smile and whisper among themselves — "Vain is this seeking! Unbroken perfection is over all!"

 

“Escape at Bedtime”

By Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)

 

The lights from the parlor and kitchen shone out

Through the blinds and the windows and bars;

And high overhead and all moving about,

There were thousands of millions of stars.

There ne’er were such thousands of leaves on a tree,

Nor of people in church or the Park,

As the crowds of the stars that looked down upon me,

And that glittered and winked in the dark.

 

The Dog, and the Plow, and the Hunter, and all,

And the Star of the Sailor, and Mars,

These shone in the sky, and the pail by the wall

Would be half full of water and stars.

They saw me at last, and they chased me with cries,

And they soon had me packed into bed;

But the glory kept shining and bright in my eyes,

And the stars going round in my head.

 

“When Stars Are in the Quiet Skies”

By Edward Robert Bulwer-Lytton (1831-1891)

                Editor’s Note: This poem is dedicated, with lifelong gratitude, to Ninianne, my first peer mentor at the University of Illinois. My anam cara (soul friend) now dwells among the stars. May light perpetual shine upon her!

 

When stars are in the quiet skies,

Then most I pine for thee;

Bend on me then thy tender eyes,

As stars look on the sea.

For thoughts, like waves that glide by night,

Are stillest when they shine;

Mine earthly love lies hushed in light

Beneath the heaven of thine.

 

There is an hour when angels keep

Familiar watch over men,

When coarser souls are wrapped in sleep;

Sweet spirit, meet me then!

There is an hour when holy dreams

Through slumber fairest glide,

And in that mystic hour it seems

Thou shouldst be by my side.

 

My thoughts of thee too sacred are

For daylight’s common beam;

I can but know thee as my star,

My angel and my dream!

When stars are in the quiet skies,

Then most I pine for thee;

Bend on me then thy tender eyes,

As stars look on the sea.

 

“Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”

By Jane Taylor (1783-1824)

 

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

How I wonder what you are!

Up above the world so high,

Like a diamond in the sky.

 

When the blazing Sun is gone,

When he nothing shines upon,

Then you show your little light,

Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.

 

Then the traveler in the dark,

Thanks you for your tiny spark,

He could not see which way to go,

If you did not twinkle so.

 

In the dark blue sky you keep,

And often through my curtains peep,

For you never shut your eye,

Till the Sun is in the sky.

 

'Tis your bright and tiny spark,

Lights the traveler in the dark,

Though I know not what you are,

Twinkle, twinkle, little star.

 

“The Spacious Firmament on High”

By Joseph Addison (1672-1719)

 

The spacious firmament on high,

With all the blue ethereal sky,

And spangled heavens, a shining frame

Their great Original proclaim.

The unwearied Sun, from day to day,

Does his Creator’s powers display,

And publishes to every land

The work of an almighty hand.

 

Soon as the evening shades prevail

The Moon takes up the wondrous tale,

And nightly to the listening Earth

Repeats the story of her birth;

While all the stars that round her burn

And all the planets in their turn,

Confirm the tidings as they roll,

And spread the truth from pole to pole.

 

What though in solemn silence all

Move round the dark terrestrial ball?

What though no real voice nor sound

Amid the radiant orbs be found?

In reason’s ear they all rejoice,

And utter forth a glorious voice,

Forever singing as they shine,

"The hand that made us is divine."

 

The Last Line of the Divina Commedia

(Paradiso XXXIII: 145)

By Dante (1265-1321)

“L'amor che muove il Sole e l'altre stelle.”

“The love that moves the Sun and the other stars.”

 

A map of the known Universe, based on the Phaenomena, an ancient Greek didactic poem on astronomy by Aratus (fl. 3^rd century BCE), as pictured in a French manuscript from ca. 1000 CE. (Image Credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

 

Excerpt from the Prologue to the Phaenomena

By Aratus (ca. 315-240 BCE)

Translated by John Lamb (1848)

⁠

Next hail, harmonious Muses, and inspire

Some portion of your own celestial fire,

Not adverse to a daring Poet's flight,

Who scours on fancy's wings the realms of light.

 

⁠These diamond orbs their various circles trace,

And run incessantly their daily race.

Round a fixed axis roll the starry skies: 20

Earth, even balanced, in the center lies.

One pole far south is hid from mortal eye,

One over our northern ocean rises high.

 

The Glory of the Heavens:

A Meditation from Sirach 43:1-10 (LXX Version)

By Rabbi Yeshua Ben Sira (fl. ca. 180 BCE)

Translated by Sir Lancelot C. L. Brenton (1807-1862)

 

                [1] The pride of the height, the clear firmament, the beauty of heaven, with his glorious shew; [2] the sun when it appeareth, declaring at his rising a marvelous instrument, the work of the most High: [3] at noon it parcheth the country, and who can abide the burning heat thereof? [4] A man blowing a furnace is in works of heat, but the sun burneth the mountains three times more; breathing out fiery vapors, and sending forth bright beams, it dimmeth the eyes. [5] Great is the Lord that made it; and at his commandment it runneth hastily.

                [6] He made the moon also to serve in her season for a declaration of times, and a sign of the world. [7] From the moon is the sign of feasts, a light that decreaseth in her perfection. [8] The month is called after her name, increasing wonderfully in her changing, being an instrument of the armies above, shining in the firmament of heaven;

                [9] the beauty of heaven, the glory of the stars, an ornament giving light in the highest places of the Lord. [10] At the commandment of the Holy One they will stand in their order, and never faint in their watches.

 

Orphic Hymn #6: “To the Stars”

Translated by Thomas Taylor (1758-1835)

                Editor’s Note: The Orphic poets (a guild of ancient Greek philosopher-bards named after their legendary founder, Orpheus) celebrated the wonders of the natural world and their lofty ideals in poetic chants, which were preserved in written form after centuries of oral transmission as the Orphic Hymns. In the poetic forms of their protoscientific age, the Orphic bards personified the forces of Nature, the celestial orbs, and abstract ideals in order to explain how and why the natural world and the human social order function in the ways that they do.

 

With holy voice I call the stars on high,

Pure sacred lights and genii of the sky.

Celestial stars, the progeny of Night,

In whirling circles beaming far your light,

Refulgent rays around the heavens ye throw,

Eternal fires, the source of all below.

With flames significant of Fate ye shine,

And aptly rule for men a path divine.

In seven bright zones ye run with wandering flames,

And heaven and earth compose your lucid frames:

With course unwearied, pure and fiery bright

Forever shining through the veil of Night.

Hail twinkling, joyful, ever wakeful fires!

Propitious shine on all my just desires;

These sacred rites regard with conscious rays,

And end our works devoted to your praise.