To the Planet Venus, an Evening Star

— by William Wordsworth

Though joy attend Thee orient at the birth Of dawn, it cheers the lofty spirit most To watch thy course when Daylight, fled from earth, In the grey sky hath left his lingering Ghost, Perplexed as if between a splendour lost And splendour slowly mustering. Since the Sun, The absolute, the world-absorbing One, Relinquished half his empire to the host Emboldened by thy guidance, holy Star, Holy as princely—who that looks on thee, Touching, as now, in thy humility The mountain borders of this seat of care, Can question that thy countenance is bright, Celestial Power, as much with love as light?