—I AM like a slip of comet,

            —I AM like a slip of comet,

Scarce worth discovery, in some corner seen

Bridging the slender difference of two stars,

Come out of space, or suddenly engender' d

By heady elements, for no man knows :

But when she sights the sun she grows and sizes

And spins her skirts out, while her central star

Shakes its cocooning mists ; and so she comes

To fields of light; millions of travelling rays

Pierce her; she hangs upon the flame-cased sun,

And sucks the light as full as Gideon's fleece:

But then her tether calls her; she falls off,

And as she dwindles shreds her smock of gold

Amidst the sistering planets, till she comes

To single Saturn, last and solitary ;

And then goes out into the cavernous dark.

So I go out : my little sweet is done:

I have drawn heat from this contagious sun :

To not ungentle death now forth I run.