DYING , TO HIS Friends — AFTER MANY P ENALTIES UNDER THE I
NQUISITION FOR HIS A STRONOMICAL B ELIEFS

So be it, the priest shall come,
Since you fear, with the Eucharist!
I recant again. I will eat —
And drink — of the Bread, the Wine.
But then, ere the night grows numb,
Ere the end draws near, and the Mist
Enswathes me, I would complete
One thought more. Do the stars shine?

A heretic? Well, the Church
Has her will. But Copernicus
Saw a great truth for all that:
And yet I am troubled still!
The sun, that he found, by search,
To be lord of our day and us,
Is so! but he paused thereat:
There 's more to be said by who will!

There 's more to be said by who dares ...
But nay, do not fear, I am old
And blind — so others must speak,
And suffer the Church's ban.
Infinity there unbares;
The earth and planets have told
But a word: some braver will seek
How the heavens themselves began!

A blasphemy, that? Not so,
For motion and force are God's,
Though in them is hidden the thought
That eludes me, even to death.
How earth draws the moon I know,
And how great Jupiter plods,
With satellites to him caught —
As if by an indrawn breath!

That indrawn breath, is it one
Between all things cast upon space?
The stone that I fling and the star
Fall yielding alike to its will?
Does the Universe so run?
God give me a year of grace
And yet I shall pierce afar
Into that; for it needs but skill.

The holy Wine and the Bread?
They are come? yea, I believe —
In Christ and the Virgin too,
So now ... be wholly at ease.
In Pisa's Church overhead
Swung the pendulous light ... receive
My discoveries, God — from whom ...
The first came, there, on my knees!

For if Thou hast sent thy Word
To the Church, Thou hast sent us too
The heavens' eternal scroll
For men with their minds to read.
So where a truth I averred
Of stars is to Thee untrue,
Lay it not, O God, to my soul
That I trusted both in my need!