That wander in the spangled heavens,
Be buried in the general doom.
No more with gleaming, deathless torch, 835
Shall Phoebus, lord of all the stars,
Lead the procession of the years
And mark the seasons; nevermore
Shall Luna, flashing back his rays,
Dispel the fears of night; and pass
In shorter course her brother's car. 840
The throng of heavenly beings soon
Shall in one vast abyss be heaped.
That shining path of sacred stars,
Which cuts obliquely 'thwart the zones, 845
The standard-bearer of the years,
Shall see the stars in ruin fall,
Itself in ruin falling. He,
The Ram, who, in the early spring,
Restores the sails to the warming breeze,
Shall headlong plunge into those waves 850
Through which the trembling maid of Greece
He bore of old. And Taurus, who
Upon his horns like a garland wears
The Hyades, shall drag with him
The sacred Twins, and the stretched-out claws
Of the curving Crab. With heat inflamed,
Alcides' Lion once again 855
Shall fall from heaven; the Virgin, too,
Back to the earth she left shall fall;
And the righteous Scales with their mighty weights,
Shall drag in their fall the Scorpion.
And he, old Chiron, skilled to hold 860
Upon his bow of Thessaly
The feathered dart, shall lose his shafts
And break his bow. Cold Capricorn,
Who ushers sluggish winter in,
Shall fall from heaven, and break thy urn,
Whoe'er thou art, O Waterman. 865
And with thee shall the Fish depart
Remotest of the stars of heaven;
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