Poem of the Week

Choose Something Like a Star

Robert Frost

O Star (the fairest one in sight),
We grant your loftiness the right
To some obscurity of cloud --
It will not do to say of night,
Since dark is what brings out your light.
Some mystery becomes the proud.
But to be wholly taciturn
In your reserve is not allowed.

Say something to us we can learn
By heart and when alone repeat.
Say something! And it says "I burn."
But say with what degree of heat.
Talk Fahrenheit, talk Centigrade.
Use language we can comprehend.
Tell us what elements you blend.

It gives us strangely little aid,
But does tell something in the end.
And steadfast as Keats' Eremite,
Not even stooping from its sphere,
It asks a little of us here.
It asks of us a certain height,
So when at times the mob is swayed
To carry praise or blame too far,
We may choose something like a star
To stay our minds on and be staid.

***

While I like a lot of poetry, I tend to find religious poetry a bit too maudlin for my taste. I prefer poetry that touches on a religious subject without being too preachy or sentimental. Frost's "Choose Something Like a Star" is a long-time favorite of mine - it embodies both the frustration of religious experience as well as the comfort that can come from placing your faith in something higher than yourself.

Plus, I sang an arrangement of it back in junior high that was so beautiful that it got me hooked on singing to this day.