Classic Poem

My house burnt down, I saw the stars
Where a dull ceiling once had been.
The smoky rafters stood like bars
With glittering planets in between.

My neighbours came and saved the shell
Of my burnt house. I took no heed.
They called to me that all was well.
I strid a rafter like a steed.

My neighbours stamped the flower beds,
Imploring me to clamber down.
And all the time above their heads
The steady stars were like a crown.

I chirruped to my rafter horse
That he might flee across the sky,
Galloping in a planet's course
As I directed. Who was I?

I heard the shouts shot up at me,
I heard the cry: " The man's a fool! "
The rafter leapt amazingly
Among the stars. The air was cool.

The stars ran swiftly past my ear.
Chirping and chuckling, so they came.
They whispered to me not to fear.
I did not fear, the stars were tame.

They fawned and licked my hands and feet,
I rode enwound in fondling stars.
They grouped themselves to make a street,
And Venus flew with me, and Mars.

Jupiter strode along ahead
To push the crowding stars aside,
And Mercury, with fluttering tread,
Held back the rear that I might ride.

Now who would own a house of wood,
Of clay, or even morticed stone?
A hundred years I might have stood
Under the ceilings hanging prone.

" Blest fire! " I thought, and dug my heels
Into the rafter. On it slid.
The stars were road-dust blown from wheels
Behind my flight. I reached the lid.

There was the cover of the sky.
I cried out to my rafter, " Stop! "
It heeded not at all, and I
Came bump against the awful top.

The shock deprived me of my breath
And shuttlecocking down I went.
A palsied thought that this was death
Scattered my senses and I bent.

All huddled up upon my steed
I clung, but with a swoop the rafter
Dropped through my legs which could not speed
So fast. I fell alone thereafter.

I fell and fell again. I fell
For years and years. It was so dark
I only knew the door of Hell
Because it glowed with a red spark.

The stars had gone, the years had gone,
A memory was all I had.
I sat in a burnt dusk alone
And heard a voice say, " He is mad! "

Perhaps, thought I, it may be so,
But it's a poor man who'll not pay
For pleasures had when pleasures go.
Thank Fortune, I'm not made that way.

They brought a wife and child to me
And called them mine. The silly dolts!
I turned my back upon their plea.
They put me behind bars and bolts.

I did not care a tinker's damn
For this or that. For I am he
Who rode with stars, that's what I am,
And will be to Eternity.

I've sold my life for one short night
And it was worth the payment due.
A man has certainly a right
To do as he desires to do.

They tell me 'twas my wife and child
Who owned my life. But these are names
I've never heard before. Who build
Such flimsy lies can make no claims.

Fiddlesticks! fellows. Leave me be;
Here or elsewhere, it matters not.
Blinded by stars, I cannot see.
A memory is all I've got.

Leave me alone to dree my weird.
It always comes, the paying day.
And I remember I once steered
A rafter through a milky way.