Genre:

Poetry

Subjects:

Astronomy, Astrology, Religion, Speculation, Wonder, Piety

    The narrator speculates whether a star might be a world, and whether its inhabitants ever experienced a fall from grace. The poem then turns to the vain attempts of the human mind to 'scan the secrets of the sky; / And learn, with scrutinizing gaze, / To read the planets as they blaze'. These attempts to know how things are, or how they will be, occupy humans instead of the knowledge of true religion. (178) In heaven, vain conjecture shall not 'Employ the mind, the tongue, the pen; / But all Creation's mysteries / Shall stand unveil'd before our eyes; / And we shall wonder, praise, adore' (179).