“The phrase seems to have come to the English language by way of the astronomers who spoke Middle High German, who in turn borrowed it from Latin, translating the phrase "stella obscura", used by Roman astronomers to describe a faint star.”
Prosody
“Each haiku-like verse of "Dark Star" captures an image in transition, and does so in very economical language. The star crashes; reason tatters; searchlights seek; the mirror shatters; a hand turns to a flower; a mysterious lady disappears. There are a total of six verses, three preceding each chorus.
Rhyme and assonance are used sparingly: "crashes/ashes"; "tatters/axis/shatters/matter"; "dissolving/revolving."
The rhythm breaks into five strong beats per verse, to go with the melody; the verses contain differing numbers of syllables, but revolve around a mean of 13: 12, 13, 13, 13, 14, 13.
The "chorus" offers a transition. (See "readers comments") into the lengthy stretches of instrumental improvisation. It is broken into two melodic lines of four strong beats per line, with a grand total of 19 syllables.” (http://artsites.ucsc.edu/GDead/agdl/darkstar.html)
Nice.... thanks Jer Bear -- two Prufrock references in one week! Mike/Norwood
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