Wedding reading
The stars about the fair moon
Sappho, tr. Henry Thornton Wharton
“The stars about the fair moon” by Sappho, tr. Henry Thornton Wharton is a poem read at a wedding ceremony. It takes about 15 seconds read aloud, usually by a guest reader. It is in the public domain, so the full text is printed on this page and goes straight into a ceremony script.
The full text
The stars about the fair moon in their turn hide their bright face when she at about her full lights up all earth with silver.
Public domain, so these words can be printed in a ceremony script or an order of service.
What it is about
Twenty-five words of Sappho, and every one of them is a compliment. The shortest thing on the shelf — made for a child reader, or a reader who wants one sentence and no more.
Read at a wedding ceremony. Themes: the shortest reading here · stars and the moon · she outshines everyone in the room · one sentence · a child reader · an outdoor wedding · an evening wedding · ancient Greek.
Questions about reading it aloud
How long does “The stars about the fair moon” take to read aloud?
“The stars about the fair moon” takes about 15 seconds read aloud at a ceremony pace, which is slower than conversation — roughly 130 words a minute. That is the figure the run-sheet uses when it works out the timing for the whole service.
Who usually reads “The stars about the fair moon”?
Usually a guest reader rather than the officiant. “The stars about the fair moon” runs about 15 seconds, which is a manageable amount to hand to a friend or family member. Give them a printed copy of their own, in a size they can read without their glasses, and tell them where to stand and how you will introduce them.
Can “The stars about the fair moon” be printed in a ceremony script?
Yes. It is in the public domain, so the full text is on this page and can be printed in a script or an order of service.
Where this text was checked
Checked word for word against a full-text edition that is itself the authority — a Project Gutenberg or Wikisource transcription, a publisher’s own edition, or the issuing body’s page.
Checked
A reading is two minutes of the hour.
The rest is the welcome, the vows, the ring exchange, the pronouncement — and the timing that holds them together. Answer some questions about the couple and get the whole ceremony, written out, with this reading in its place.