Songs to the Evenstar

Hello everyone –

Coming up on November 24^th, skywatchers throughout the world will be able to see the bright planets Venus and Jupiter very close to each other in the west during evening twilight. The planet Venus is the brightest object in our sky after the Sun and Moon, and a great deal of mythology has gathered around it since the beginning of recorded history (and probably long before that!). Here are some of my favorite poems about Venus, my favorite planet to observe in the night sky, which is now functioning as the “Evening Star” (a/k/a the “Wishing Star” from Disney animated films).

The Evenstar in Old English!

(Cynewulf, 8^th Century CE):

    éala éarendel engla beorhtast

    ofer middangeard monnum sended

Which means:

“Hail Day-Star! Brightest angel sent to men throughout Middle-Earth!”

“February Twilight”

By Sara Teasdale (1884-1933)

I stood beside a hill

Smooth with new-laid snow,

A single star looked out

From the cold evening glow.

There was no other creature

That saw what I could see --

I stood and watched the Evening Star

As long as it watched me.

“Evening Star” (1930)

By H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937)

I saw it from that hidden, silent place

Where the old wood half shuts the meadow in.

It shone through all the sunset’s glories – thin

At first, but with a slowly brightening face.

Night came, and that lone beacon, amber-hued,

Beat on my sight as never it did of old;

The evening star – but grown a thousandfold

More haunting in this hush and solitude.

It traced strange pictures on the quivering air –

Half-memories that had always filled my eyes –

Vast towers and gardens; curious seas and skies

Of some dim life – I never could tell where.

But now I knew that through the cosmic dome

Those rays were calling from my far, lost home.

“The Voyage of Ëarendel, the Evening Star” (1914)

By J. R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973)

Editor’s Note: The Evenstar (Venus, Éarendel) is a beacon of hope to the peoples of Middle-Earth in J. R. R. Tolkien’s fantasy writings (The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, etc.). May you always find an Evenstar when you need one, and may you also be the Evenstar to others. J

Ëarendel arose where the shadow flows

At Ocean’s silent brim;

Through the mouth of night as a ray of light

Where the shores are sheer and dim

He launched his bark like a silver spark

From the last and lonely sand;

Then on sunlit breath of the day’s fiery death

He sailed from Westerland.

He threaded his path o’er the aftermath

Of the splendor of the Sun,

And wandered far past many a star

In his gleaming galleon.

On the gathering tide of darkness ride

The argosies of the sky,

And spangle the night with their sails of light

As the streaming star goes by.

Unheeding he dips past these twinkling ships,

By his wayward spirit whirled

On an endless quest through the darkling West

O’er the margin of the world;

And he fares in haste o’er the jeweled waste

And the dusk from whence he came

With his heart afire with bright desire

And his face in silver flame.

The Ship of the Moon from the East comes soon

From the Haven of the Sun,

Whose white gates gleam in the coming beam

Of the mighty silver one.

Lo! with bellying clouds as his vessel’s shrouds

He weighs anchor down the dark,

And on shimmering oars leaves the blazing shores

In his argent-timbered bark.

Then Ëarendel fled from that Shipman dread

Beyond the dark earth’s pale,

Back under the rim of the Ocean dim,

And behind the world set sail;

And he heard the mirth of the folk of earth

And the falling of their tears,

As the world dropped back in a cloudy wrack

On its journey down the years.

Then he glimmering passed to the starless vast

As an isléd lamp at sea,

And beyond the ken of mortal men

Set his lonely errantry,

Tracking the Sun in his galleon

Through the pathless firmament,

Till his light grew old in abysses cold

And his eager flame was spent.

Keep looking up!

Rob