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The Star

by Edgar Lee Masters

I am a certain god

Who slipped down from a remote height

To a place of pools and stars.

And I sat invisible

Amid a clump of trees

To watch the madmen.

There were cries and groans about me,

And shouts of laughter and curses.

Figures passed by with self-absorbed contempt,

Wrinkling in bitter smiles about their lips.

Others hurried on with set eyes

Pursuing something.

Then I said this is the place for mad Frederick -

Mad Frederick will be here.

But everywhere I could see

Figures sitting or standing

By little pools.

Some seemed grown into the soil

And were helpless.

And of these some were asleep.

Others laughed the laughter

That comes from dying men

Trying to face Death.

And others said "I should be content,"

And others said "I will fly."

Whereupon sepulchral voices muttered,

As of creatures sitting or hanging head down

From limbs of the trees,

"We will not let you."

And others looked in their pools

And clasped hands and said "Gone, all gone."

By other pools there were dead bodies:

Some of youth, some of age.

They had given up the fight,

They had drunk poisoned water,

They had searched

Until they fell -

All had gone mad!

Then I, a certain god,

Curious to know

What it is in pools and stars

That drives men and women

Over the earth in this quest

Waited for mad Frederick.

And then I heard his step.

I knew that long ago

He sat by one of these pools

Enraptured of a star's image.

And that hands, for his own good,

As they said,

Dumped clay into the pool

And blotted his star.

And I knew that after that

He had said, "They will never spy again

Upon my ecstasy.

They will never see me watching one star.

I will fly by rivers,

And by little brooks,

And by the edge of lakes,

And by little bends of water,

Where no wind blows,

And glance at stars as I pass.

They will never spy again

Upon my ecstasy."

And I knew that mad Frederick

In this flight

Through years of restless and madness

Was caught by the image of a star

In a mere beyond a meadow

Down from a hill, under a forest,

And had said,

"No one sees;

Here I can find life,

Through vision of eternal things."

But they had followed him.

They stood on the brow of the hill,

And when they saw him gazing in the water

They rolled a great stone down the hill,

And shattered the star's image.

Then mad Frederick fled with laughter.

It echoed through the wood.

And he said, "I will look for moons,

I will punish them who disturb me,

By worshiping moons."

But when he sought moons

They left him alone,

And he did not want the moons.

And he was alone, and sick from the moons,

And covered as with a white blankness,

Which was the worst madness of all.

And I, a certain god,

Waiting for mad Frederick

To enter this place of pools and stars,

Saw him at last.

With a sigh he looked about upon his fellows

Sitting or standing by their pools.

And some of the pools were covered with scum,

And some were glazed as of filth,

And some were grown with weeds,

And some were congealed as of the north wind,

And a few were yet pure,

And held the star's image.

And by these some sat and were glad,

Others had lost the vision.

The star was there, but its meaning vanished.

And mad Frederick, going here and there,

With no purpose,

Only curious and interested

As I was, a certain god,

Came by a certain pool

And saw a star.

He shivered,

He clasped his hands,

He sank to his knees,

He touched his lips to the water.

Then voices from the limbs of the trees muttered:

"There he is again."

"He must be driven away."

"The pool is not his."

"He does not belong here."

So as when bats fly in a cave

They swooped from their hidings in the trees

And dashed themselves in the pool.

Then I saw what these flying things were -

But no matter.

They were illusions, evil and envious

And dull,

But with power to destroy.

And mad Frederick turned away from the pool

And covered his eyes with his arms.

Then a certain god,

Of less power than mine,

Came and sat beside me and said:

"Why do you allow this to be?

They are all seeking,

Why do you not let them find their heart's delight?

Why do you allow this to be?"

But I did not answer.

The lesser god did not know

That I have no power,

That only the God has the power.

And that this must be

In spite of all lesser gods.

And I saw mad Frederick

Arise and ascend to the top of a high hill,

And I saw him find the star

Whose image he had seen in the pool.

Then he knelt and prayed:

"Give me to understand, O Star,

Your inner self, your eternal spirit,

That I may have you and not images of you,

So that I may know what has driven me through the world,

And may cure my soul.

For I know you are Eternal Love,

And I can never escape you.

And if I cannot escape you,

Then I must serve you.

And if I must serve you,

It must be to good and not ill -

You have brought me from the forest of pools

And the images of stars,

Here to the hill's top.

Where now do I go?

And what shall I do?"