"House-of-the-Stars"

House-of-the-Stars

When I come up the hill at night
        And see my home far, high, aloof,
All Heaven’s stars seem glittering
        Upon its storm-worn roof.

They outline all the gable steep
        Above the square, unlighted panes,
And all along the eaves they hang
        In bright and sparkling chains.

Dear house, thine ugliness by day
        Is turned to beauty overnight,
And all thy dark, unlovely lines
        Flash into lines of light.

Yea, all about thee, silently,
        When the dusk lets down her purple bars,
The very winds that sweep the hill
        Shake loose the silver stars.

Far do I wander from thy peace,
        Far from thy simple, sweet content;
Often in idleness and wrong
        My empty days are spent.

Yet nightly up the lonely hill,
        Above the town, above the sea, 

I climb with lifted eyes to find
        The stars that shine for me.

So, though I wander late and far,
        When Death lets down the purple bars,
Dear God, wilt thou not let me in
        Thine own House-of-the-Stars?

"House-of-the-Stars" as it appears in Ella Higginson's The Voice of April-Land and Other Poems (1903).