Search - List of Books by Sarah Williams
Sarah Williams (1837–1868) was an English poet, most famous as the author of "The Old Astronomer", also known as "The Old Astronomer to His Pupil".
A segment of her poem is used in the introduction to Ian Rankin's novel
Set in Darkness.
- Though my soul may set in darkness,
- :it will rise in perfect light.
- I have loved the stars too fondly
- :to be fearful of the night.
Poem
- The Old Astronomer to His Pupil
- Reach me down my Tycho Brahe, I would know him when we meet,
- When I share my later science, sitting humbly at his feet;
- He may know the law of all things, yet be ignorant of how
- We are working to completion, working on from then to now.
- Pray remember that I leave you all my theory complete,
- Lacking only certain data for your adding, as is meet,
- And remember men will scorn it, 'tis original and true,
- And the obliquy of newness may fall bitterly on you.
- But, my pupil, as my pupil you have learned the worth of scorn,
- You have laughed with me at pity, we have joyed to be forlorn,
- What for us are all distractions of men's fellowship and smiles;
- What for us the Goddess Pleasure with her meretricious smiles.
- You may tell that German College that their honor comes too late,
- But they must not waste repentance on the grizzly savant's fate.
- Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light;
- I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.
- E.A. Plumptre, 'Memoir', in Sarah Williams, Twilight Hours. A Legacy of Verse, 3rd edition, London: Strahan & Co., 1872
Sarah Williams
Total Books: 69