“I love the stars to fondly, to be fearful of the night.”

-Sarah Williams

Have you ever noticed how obsessed we humans sometimes are about the stars? I mean, people talk all the time about finding inspiration from them. But, there is something rather calming about them. And so, I’m choosing a rather famous star quote to write about. This quote actually came from the poem “Old Astronomer to His Pupil” and its about the advice of an… old astronomer to his pupil. The astronomer, who’s dying, tells his pupil to continue his work, not for the pursuit of fame, and to ignore scorn from others. Although I don’t think this is what the main message of the quote is (more on that later), you could see the quote as symbolically saying that the “stars” of knowledge are too special for the pupil to be “fearful” of the ridicule and work that they might have to deal with in order to gain that knowledge. Knowledge really can be thought of as a bright star in the darkness. After all, the Enlightenment (which, by the way, literally means to “shed light on;” like a star), was essentially caused by knowledge.

But I think what the astronomer is really trying to convey is that he isn’t afraid of death because he loves the possibilities of what could be after death too much to be afraid of it. Think about something you really care about; I’m guessing that your love of whatever you chose is going to block out any fear surrounding it. Symbolically, some people say that after death people rest amongst the stars.

Stars are distant and unknown, but bright. So the quote could also be saying not to fear a beautiful thing because of obstacles. Sometimes I wonder how many people were on the brink of success, of achieving something wonderful, but gave up right before they solved their puzzle. Maybe if they had just kept working on it for one more day, they would’ve achieved their goal. That sucks. Lesson: Don’t give up; stars are a good enough reason to keep plowing through the night.

Here’s another interesting thing about stars: they always come back. But then, so does night. However, what catches your attention more? Do you notice the black background or the bright dots? Hopefully, you said the bright dots. If so, it could symbolize that doing small, kind things are still important, because it will stick out against selfishness. It’s like a red dot on white paper.

There are other similar comparisons you can make to the quote. You could say that you love the beauty of roses too much to be scared of thorns, but I don’t think it could capture all the representations that stars do. For example, stars, in so many different cultures, represent a divine force or energy. Maybe that’s why some people think of their own problems as insignificant or even petty when they look up at the stars; they think of everything in a bigger context. Physically, we need to use bigger scales to measure time and distance in space. Back to the quote, it could be saying that you’re more focused on things that last through time, and you can’t be bothered to be worried or scared of the common concerns of “night.”

Do you guys remember that old song “twinkle twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are?” 🙂 Well, we don’t seem to really know what stars are. After all, we say that we wonder what you are. This, I think, only adds to the symbolic representation; since stars are nebulous they can inspire people about virtually any problem. They’re unspecified. Since stars are “unspecified,” the poet could be saying that they have an unlimited source of reassurance to draw from, which they can find comfort from regarding all the different problems they encounter. If you find stars reassuring, that is (which a lot of people do actually).

Lastly, stars represent hope. Who hasn’t heard the saying “wish upon a shooting star?” Although sadly, wishing on stars don’t actually work, it shows that we have faith that fate or destiny or whatever you want to call it has a path mixing our dreams and reality (of course, still wish on stars just in case). The quote could be saying that faith is going to obliterate any lingering fear of failure. Personally, I think optimism should be peppered with some knowledge of reality, but each to his own. We can always hope.

What are your own ideas about the quote?? Comment below!