So vast that distance gives no parallax

And centuries untold would pass ere light

From the remotest wanderer could burn!

So vast yon fires are a hundred-fold

More luminous than ours to them in turn,

And it in lost direction would dissolve

From Earth’s own lode-star here yclept the Pole!

So vast that hosts so numberless revolve

In unison as no assembled whole

Of man’s most perfect mechanism moves,