stars and tree...

stars
float from the borders of the main.
-
above
the vast of heaven strung with brilliant stars.
-
how looks the night? there does not miss a star.
the million sorts of unaccounted motes
now quicken, sheathed in the yellow galaxy.
there is no parting or bare interstice
where the sting of compass of a skylark's wings
would not put out some tiny golden centre.
-
stars waving their indivisible rays.
sky fleeced with the milky way.
-
night's lantern
pointed with pierced lights, and breaks of rays
discover'd everywhere.
-
the sky minted into golden sequins.
stars like gold tufts.
- - golden bees.
- - golden rowels.
sky peak'd with tiny flames.
-
stars like tiny spoked wheels of fire.
lanterns of night, pierced in eyelets.
-
his gilded rowels
now stars of blood.
-
a star most spiritual, principal, preeminent
of all the golden press.
-
or ever the early stirrings of skylark
might cover the neighbor downs with a span of singing,
while phospher, risen upon the shallowing dark,
in the ruddied country of the day's up-bringing
stood capital, eminent, ... gonfalon-bearer
to all the starry press, -

gerard manly hopkins, star images: september to december 1864 (from poems for the millennium volume 3), image: cyanotype, 1870's