642. The Fallen Star

A STAR is gone! a star is gone!
There is a blank in Heaven;
One of the cherub choir has done
His airy course this even.

He sat upon the orb of fire	5
That hung for ages there,
And lent his music to the choir
That haunts the nightly air.

But when his thousand years are pass’d,
With a cherubic sigh	10
He vanish’d with his car at last,
For even cherubs die!

Hear how his angel-brothers mourn—
The minstrels of the spheres—
Each chiming sadly in his turn	15
And dropping splendid tears.

The planetary sisters all
Join in the fatal song,
And weep this hapless brother’s fall,
Who sang with them so long.	20

But deepest of the choral band
The Lunar Spirit sings,
And with a bass-according hand
Sweeps all her sullen strings.

From the deep chambers of the dome	25
Where sleepless Uriel lies,
His rude harmonic thunders come
Mingled with mighty sighs.

The thousand car-bourne cherubim,
The wandering eleven,	30
All join to chant the dirge of him
Who fell just now from Heaven.