EARTH AND SKY
We claim the earth as ours to sell and buy
None claim the sky.
To the broad, bright dominion of the Sun
Titles have none.
Mile after mile it stretches on afar
From star to star,
Span after span extend its arches, proud,
From cloud to cloud,
Rulers are born or chosen for the earth
Throughout its girth,
The sky's clear distance beautiful and broad
Is ruled by God;
No petty despot will, one planet hath
Swerved from its path
Or caused the loyal clouds to tribute pay
By night or day.
We change the earth's green surface with our hands
Lay waste its lands,
Hew down its forests or with noise and shock
Tear up its solid rock;
No feeble blundering hand can touch to mar
Sun, cloud or star.
Vast domes and monuments we rear and plan,
Great rivers span,
But not one dome 'midst those above we lift
Nor bridge one rift
In all the white cloud-continents that lie
Strewn o'er the sky.
We launch strong ships to sail the ocean o'er
From shore to shore;
We cannot send one fairy yacht to ply
The blue waves of the sky.
We call the spot of earth our hands have sown
By right our own,
But never title to the fields above
Can mortal prove;
We watch it stretched above, before, behind
O'er all mankind;
We claim a little while these earthly clods,
The sky is God's.
Ah! could we take upon some summer night
Our joyful flight
Up to the blue, blue heights that look so fair
And pausing there
Look down to earth through far immensity
What would we see?
One tiny star that none may sell or buy
In God's great sky.
None claim the sky.
To the broad, bright dominion of the Sun
Titles have none.
Mile after mile it stretches on afar
From star to star,
Span after span extend its arches, proud,
From cloud to cloud,
Rulers are born or chosen for the earth
Throughout its girth,
The sky's clear distance beautiful and broad
Is ruled by God;
No petty despot will, one planet hath
Swerved from its path
Or caused the loyal clouds to tribute pay
By night or day.
We change the earth's green surface with our hands
Lay waste its lands,
Hew down its forests or with noise and shock
Tear up its solid rock;
No feeble blundering hand can touch to mar
Sun, cloud or star.
Vast domes and monuments we rear and plan,
Great rivers span,
But not one dome 'midst those above we lift
Nor bridge one rift
In all the white cloud-continents that lie
Strewn o'er the sky.
We launch strong ships to sail the ocean o'er
From shore to shore;
We cannot send one fairy yacht to ply
The blue waves of the sky.
We call the spot of earth our hands have sown
By right our own,
But never title to the fields above
Can mortal prove;
We watch it stretched above, before, behind
O'er all mankind;
We claim a little while these earthly clods,
The sky is God's.
Ah! could we take upon some summer night
Our joyful flight
Up to the blue, blue heights that look so fair
And pausing there
Look down to earth through far immensity
What would we see?
One tiny star that none may sell or buy
In God's great sky.