supreme electrum

Solnit update.

the earth will sweeten this spot
with the years, with the years
forgetting all our spite
the earth will sweeten this spot
the things we did for sport
& what the faith requires
the earth will sweeten this spot

with the years, with the years

Mallarmé & catasterism. (Not 707?) In Nonnos."I half suspect that the whole note is one of Poe's inventions." (Certainly corresponding to nothing so specific in the Quran...) Also, in "Ligeia": "...a sentiment such as I felt always aroused within me by her large and luminous orbs. Yet not the more could I define that sentiment, or analyze, or even steadily view it. I recognized it, let me repeat, sometimes in the survey of a rapidly-growing vine --in the contemplation of a moth, a butterfly, a chrysalis, a stream of running water. I have felt it in the ocean; in the falling of a meteor. I have felt it in the glances of unusually aged people. And there are one or two stars in heaven --(one especially, a star of the sixth magnitude, double and changeable, to be found near the large star in Lyra)..." I always thought he meant Sheliak (a star strange enough even for E A Poe)--but it's fourth magnitude: could it be Epsilon instead? Not variable, AFAIK. Zeta? Who knows? For me, now, Beta Lyrae will always be associated in my mind with the planet Cathedonia. (Of course, I also think Umayma is Zeta Aurigae--as painted by David Hardy...) Then there's scifi about planets that really exist (a genre started by Hal Clement). I still hope one day to contribute something along those lines. But then, i am someone who would have liked the author of A Voyage to Arcturus to have known some astronomy.

ALDEBARAN AT DUSK

by: George Sterling (1869-1926)

"THOU art the star for which all evening waits--
O star of peace, come tenderly and soon
Nor heed the drowsy and enchanted moon,
Who dreams in silver at the eastern gates
Ere yet she brim with light the blue estates
Abandoned by the eagles of the noon.
But shine thou swiftly on the darkling dune
And woodlands where the twilight hesitates.

Above that wide and ruby lake to-West,
Wherein the sunset waits reluctantly,
Stir silently the purple wings of Night.
She stands afar, upholding to her breast,
As mighty murmurs reach her from the sea.
Thy lone and everlasting rose of light."