"The Falling Star"

The Falling Star

Down thro’ the purple, scented dusk

        A red star swiftly fell.

Was it a passionate soul that loved

        Not wisely but too well,

And scorning heaven’s cold delight,

        Joined its lost love in hell?

A draft of "The Falling Star" on onionskin paper, courtesy of the Ella Higginson Papers, Center for Pacific Northwest Studies, Heritage Resources, Western Washington University, Bellingham WA.

"The Falling Star" appears in Ella Higginson's When the Birds Go North Again (1898). This poem was also set to music by Cora Chamberlin Perkins.