Gemini

Twins of the heavenly house, how fairYour guerdons to our planet are!Skies ye paint of richest blue,And where the daisy's eye is foundPeeping from the moisten'd ground,Ye lead those crystal waters throughWhich old Aquarius bound.The winged tenants of the groveGreet ye with a song of love,As mid the green boughs, void of fear,Their chambers soft and warm they rear:Hovers round each blooming stalkThe bee, with nectar fill'd,And ants within the garden walkTheir cone-roof'd cities build.

Sounds from every rippling shoreSpeak the reign of winter o'er,Shouting boys, with mirthful note,Gayly launch the tiny boat,And the new-fledged ducklings playOn their oary-footed way,And when Evening dims the lake,Frogs their hoarse orchestra wake,And the tortoise loves to tell,Peering from his mottled shell,

'Tween the water and the land,Tales his comrades understand.

Starry twins! your earliest rayEngland's merry rustics hail,Round the Maypole circling gayIn the primrose-scented vale.Every cottage sends its pride,Youth, or maid, or recent bride,To the thronging village plain,While the matron, mid her care,In her daughter's beauty rare,Lives her triumphs o'er again.E'en that much-enduring race,*Who upon the darken'd faceBear the symbol of their state,Outcast and unfortunate,Seem to hope and freedom bornOn young May's propitious morn,And throughout the toil-worn year,Climbing high in chimney drear,Guard the memory, sadly gay,Of their lonely holyday.

Ancient Rome, with festive rite,Hailed ye, glittering twins of light,And the wreaths of Flora cast,Where your blended footsteps past.Classic Greece, with legends hoar,Link'd her lineage to your lore,

Pointing with her haughty handTo the Argonautic band,Who to win the fleece of goldDared the seas with Jason bold.

But from your refulgent urnTo a higher source we turn;To Him who, with a shepherd's care,Arcturus feeds in fields of air,Rules Orion's wrath, and seesThe duly marshall'd Pleiades.Hath He not the zodiac's boundTraced these azure skies around?Bidding every season proveChangeless, unforgetful love,That by teachers so divine,Starry lessons, line on line,Man, the pupil of the sky,Might be taught with praise to glow,And the love that lights his eye,To his brother's heart to show?