Choose Something Like a Star -- Robert Frost
O Star (the fairest one in sight),
We grant your loftiness the right
To some obscurity of cloud --
It will not do to say of night,
Since dark is what brings out your light.
Some mystery becomes the proud.
But to be wholly taciturn
In your reserve is not allowed.
Say something to us we can learn
By heart and when alone repeat.
Say something! And it says "I burn."
But say with what degree of heat.
Talk Fahrenheit, talk Centigrade.
Use language we can comprehend.
Tell us what elements you blend.
It gives us strangely little aid,
But does tell something in the end.
And steadfast as Keats' Eremite,
Not even stooping from its sphere,
It asks a little of us here.
It asks of us a certain height,
So when at times the mob is swayed
To carry praise or blame too far,
We may choose something like a star
To stay our minds on and be staid.
posted by Mr. Sherwood at
12:45 AM
1 Comments:
Thank you for posting this poem by Robert Frost. It used to be the tradition of our high school choir (Wichita Heights) to sing this and "The Last Words of David" at graduation ceremony, both set to music by the great teacher/composer Randall Thompson. Our choir director, Wayne Holmstrom, taught us these great works of purpose and truth. And every year he would say "I think we might choose something different to sing at graduation" and all who had sung these though previous years would insist on these two works.
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