The Galaxy
The Galaxy - meaning Summary
A Cosmic Procession Imagined
Longfellow portrays the Milky Way as a luminous river or drift of worlds crossing a dark sky. He acknowledges traditional myths—Spanish devotional vision and the Phaethon legend—but sets them aside. Instead the poem offers a simple, visionary image: stars as cosmic dust moved by a divine chariot. The tone is contemplative, blending natural description with a faintly theological metaphor to suggest awe at the universe's motion.
Read Complete AnalysesTorrent of light and river of the air, Along whose bed the glimmering stars are seen Like gold and silver sands in some ravine Where mountain streams have left their channels bare! The Spaniard sees in thee the pathway, where His patron saint descended in the sheen Of his celestial armor, on serene And quiet nights, when all the heavens were fair. Not this I see, nor yet the ancient fable Of Phaeton's wild course, that scorched the skies Where'er the hoofs of his hot coursers trod; But the white drift of worlds o'er chasms of sable, The star-dust that is whirled aloft and flies From the invisible chariot-wheels of God.
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