Figure C23 ORBIT

Descend from that high vision, dark and chill

To Earth once more. The Sun, no more the bud

Of blinding white we know, has bloomed until

It covers half the sky. The ocean’s flood

Has boiled away: to brick has baked its mud.

Mercury and Venus disappear

Like iron pellets in a sea of blood.

Yet see Man’s metal servants whoop and cheer

As Earth skips like a stone across the photosphere.