Roll on, ye starts! exult in youthful prime,

Mark with bright curves the printless steps of time;

Near and more near your beamy cars approach,

And lessening orbs on lessening orbs encroach;

Flowers of the sky! ye, too, to age must yield.

Frail as your silken sisters of the field!

Star after star from heaven's high arch shall rush,

Suns sink on suns, and systems systems crush,

Headlong, extinct, to one dark centre fall,

And death, and night, and chaos mingle all!

Till o'er the wreck, emerging from the storm,

Immortal nature lifts her changeful form,

Mounts from her funeral pyre on wings of flame,

And soars and shines, another and the same!

by Erasmus Darwin