Chapter 12 Star Stuff Copyright 2009 Pearson Education Inc Poetry Poetry is difficult to read And it should be The words express more than just their meaning Often they give you a feeling of something larger behind the idea Or the words are vague and you must fill in the meaning with your own experience The words may challenge your experience too poetry can be revolutionary Most people have no time for poetry because it is convoluted But I love poetry trying to figure out the meanings I often have to recite the poems outloud to read them They are like reading a mystery book There is something hidden in the words Can you find it Finally I always read poetry with a dictionary at my side There are often words that are obscure or used in a different sense I have chosen these poems to reflect the poet s idea of the night sky through the observation of the stars To me there is one single idea linking all these poems Maybe you will agree with me Copyright 2009 Pearson Education Inc Stars by Robert Frost How countlessly they congregate O er our tumultuous snow Which flows in shapes as tall as trees When wintry winds do blow As if with keenness for our fate Our faltering few steps on To white rest and a place of rest Invisible at dawn And yet with neither love nor hate Those stars like some snow white Minerva s snow white marble eyes Without the gift of sight Copyright 2009 Pearson Education Inc 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 Copyright 2009 Pearson Education Inc To the Evening Star by William Blake Thou fair haired angel of the evening Now whilst the sun rests on the mountains light Thy bright torch of love thy radiant crown Put on and smile upon our evening bed Smile on our loves and while thou drawest the Blue curtains of the sky scatter thy silver dew On every flower that shuts its sweet eyes In timely sleep Let thy west wing sleep on The lake speak silence with thy glimmering eyes And wash the dusk with silver Soon full soon Dost thou withdraw then the wolf rages wide And the lion glares through the dun forest The fleeces of our flocks are covered with Thy sacred dew protect with them with thine influence Copyright 2009 Pearson Education Inc Sonnet 14 Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck by William Shakespeare Not from the stars do I my judgement pluck And yet methinks I have astronomy But not to tell of good or evil luck Of plagues of dearths or seasons quality Nor can I fortune to brief minutes tell Pointing to each his thunder rain and wind Or say with princes if it shall go well By oft predict that I in heaven find But from thine eyes my knowledge I derive And constant stars in them I read such art As truth and beauty shall together thrive If from thy self to store thou wouldst convert Or else of thee this I prognosticate Thy end is truth s and beauty s doom and date Copyright 2009 Pearson Education Inc His Heart was darker than the starless night by Emily Dickinson His Heart was darker than the starless night For that there is a morn But in this black Receptacle Can be no Bode of Dawn Copyright 2009 Pearson Education Inc Undue Significance a starving man attaches by Emily Dickinson Undue Significance a starving man attaches To Food Far off He sighs and therefore Hopeless And therefore Good Partaken it relieves indeed But proves us That Spices fly In the Receipt It was the Distance Was Savory Copyright 2009 Pearson Education Inc I Can Write the Saddest Poem Tonight Pablo Neruda I can write the saddest poem tonight I can say the night is full of stars And the stars are blinking far away in the darkness Wind of the night is swinging in the sky with songs I can write the saddest poem tonight There was a time I loved her and she loved me too I embraced her for countless nights like this one How many times did I kiss her under the endless sky There was a time she loved me and I loved her too But how could I not love those big still eyes I can write the saddest poem tonight Thinking of her absence and burning out for losing her Feeling the night even more boundless without her With a poem falling on my heart like dew falling on the grass What can I do if my love couldn t keep her The night is full of stars but she is not with me That s all Somebody is singing somewhere far away My heart can t stand losing her so easily My eyes look for her wanting her closer My heart lo oks for her but she is not with me I don t love any more but I used to love so much My voice looks for the wind just to reach her She will be darling to others like before I kissed her With that voice that bright skin and those eternal looks I don t love any more but I may love again Why does it take so long to forget although love lasts so short Because I embraced her at nights like this My heart can t stand losing her so easily Maybe this is the last pain she will ever give me Maybe this is the last poem I will ever write for her Copyright 2009 Pearson Education Inc Discussion Star Stuff Are there common emotions and feelings that all humanity shares when we look to the stars Copyright 2009 Pearson Education Inc Life Track After Main Sequence Observations of star clusters show that a star becomes larger redder and more luminous after its time on the main sequence is over Copyright 2009 Pearson Education Inc Broken Thermostat As the core contracts H begins fusing to He in a shell around the core Luminosity increases because the core thermostat is broken the increasing fusion rate in the shell does not stop the …
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