Choose Something Like a Star - Randall Thompson

O Star The fairest one in sight O Star We grant your loftiness the right O Star To some obscurity of cloud O Star It will not do to say of night, O Star Since dark is what brings out your light. O Star... 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. O Star 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.