Merz Lyrics
"Starlight Night"

(words by Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1844-89)

look at the stars! look, look up at the skies!
oh look at all the fire-folk sitting in the air!
the bright boroughs, the circle-citadels there!
down in dim woods the diamond delves! the elves'-eyes!
the grey lawns cold where gold, where quickgold lies!
wind-beat whitebeam! airy abels set on a flare!
flake-doves sent floating forth at a farmyard scare!˜
ah well! it is all a purchase, all is a prize.
buy then! bid then!˜what?˜prayer, patience, alms, vows.
look, look: a may-mess, like on orchard boughs!
look! march-bloom, like on mealed-with-yellow sallows!
these are indeed the barn; within doors house
the shocks. this peace-bright paling shuts the spouse
christ home, christ and his mother and all his hallows.