Tripping The Light Fantastic Poem by Harley White

Tripping The Light Fantastic

Rating: 5.0


The Southern Pinwheel spiral has
what's considered a "grand design".
This Hydra galaxy's known as
Messier 83, ashine

in glowing lines ekphrastic,
tripping the light fantastic.

Myriad births are taking place
sidereal, within its arms,
at a stellarly speedy pace.
Gazers sight these celestial charms

so astrally dynastic,
tripping the light fantastic.

Fledglings of a few million years
are bursting from their dust cocoons,
blowing bubbles of reddish spheres
ere they cluster in blue festoons,

not to be periphrastic,
tripping the light fantastic.

Under a star that danced above
Beatrice sprung to life on earth
willful of voice and choice in love
mid much ado and merry mirth—

nay, no lady elastic—
tripping the light fantastic.

Milton addressed the Goddess Joy
rendering honor to her wiles,
then entreated her to employ
laughter's pleasure of dimpled smiles

in jollity stochastic,
tripping the light fantastic.

Starry-eyed poets such as I
following astronomic views
turn our reveries to the sky
and delight in the Hubble hues

with verse enthusiastic,
tripping the light fantastic!

Tripping The Light Fantastic
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Topic(s) of this poem: astronomy
POET'S NOTES ABOUT THE POEM
Inspiration for poem was from John Milton, William Shakespeare, and Hubble Image ~ Portion of M83 by Hubble…

"L'Allegro" is a pastoral poem by John Milton, published in 1645.
http: //www.dartmouth.edu/~milton/reading_room/l'allegro/text.shtml

Beatrice refers to the character in "Much Ado About Nothing", a comedic play by William Shakespeare thought to have been written in 1598 and 1599.

Article ~ Hubble Wide Field Camera 3 Image Details Star Birth in Galaxy M83

The image, taken in August 2009, provides a close-up view of the myriad stars near the galaxy's core, the bright whitish region at far right.

WFC3's broad wavelength range, from ultraviolet to near-infrared, reveals stars at different stages of evolution, allowing astronomers to dissect the galaxy's star-formation history.

http: //hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2009/29/image/b/

Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
COMMENTS OF THE POEM
READ THIS POEM IN OTHER LANGUAGES
Close
Error Success