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Lyric Poem · Nature

My Star

by Robert Browning

1All that I know

2 Of a certain star

3Is, it can throw

4 (Like the angled spar)

5Now a dart of red,

6 Now a dart of blue;

7Till my friends have said

8 They would fain see, too,

9My star that dartles the red and the blue!

10Then it stops like a bird; like a flower, hangs furled:

11They must solace themselves with the Saturn above it.

12What matter to me if their star is a world?

13Mine has opened its soul to me; therefore I love it.

Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.

Quick facts

Poem
My Star
Poet
Robert Browning
Length
13 lines
Form
Lyric Poem
Themes
Nature, Love, Friendship

Craft notes

How this poem works

Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.

Shape
13 lines · 2 stanzas of 4–9 lines
The poem’s silhouette — approximate syllables per line, measured from the text above. Even bars mean a measured line; ragged bars mean the poem sets its own widths.

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Text, source & rights

A traceable edition

Full-text display is based on the committed source record and a United States term-expiry review.

Author record
Robert Browning1812–1889
Source record
PoetryDBMy Star by robert-browning, PoetryDB transcription
Display decision
Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-07-18
Publication record
Not recorded in the imported source
Text fingerprint
SHA-256 d4cec132c9e9a164
Editorial handling
Whitespace and stanza breaks normalized for web display; no material wording change recorded.
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