The Poet and the Star

by Ella Rhoads Higginson 

 

 

POET sang to a star,
Ay, sang out his soul—to die;
But ever the crimson heart
Of the star beat in the sky.

The poet sang to one star,
Ay, sang out his soul—alone;
But the star with the crimson heart
For a world of poets shone.

 

(published in When the Birds Go North Again, 1898)

 

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ELLA RHOADS HIGGINSON (January 28, 1862?-December 27, 1940) was a prominent American author. She wrote award-winning fiction, poetry, and essays characteristically set in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. She was the author of two collections of short stories, six books of poetry, a novel, a travel book, well over one hundred short stories, over four hundred poems, and numerous newspaper essays. She was influential for the ways her writing drew international attention to the then little-known Pacific Northwest region of the United States.

 

Bio quoted from Dr. Laura Laffrado’s Western Washington University research page at http://faculty.wwu.edu/laffrado/research.shtml