Pleiades

In astronomy, the Pleiades (/ˈplaɪ.ədiːz/ or /ˈpliː.ədiːz/), or or Seven Sisters (Messier 45 or M45), is an open star cluster containing middle-aged hot B-type stars located in the constellation of Taurus. It is among the nearest star clusters to Earth and is the cluster most obvious to the naked eye in the night sky. The celestial entity has several meanings in different cultures and traditions.

Something there is more immortal even than the stars... Something that shall endure longer even than lustrous Jupiter Longer than sun or any revolving satellite, Or the radiant sisters the Pleiades. ~ Walt Whitman in Leaves of Grass

Quotes

Though all I knew of the rote universe were those Pleiades, loosed in December,
I promised you I'd set them to verse, so I'd always remember ~ Joanna Newsom

Sorted alphabetically by author or source

• Last night I saw the Pleiades again,
     Faint as a drift of steam
        From some tall chimney-stack;
  • Arthur Adams, The Pleiades

• Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion.
  • Amos 5:8

• Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades,
  and the chambers of the south.
  • Job 9:9

• Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades,
  or loose the bands of Orion?
  • Job 38:31

• It behoveth you to seek agreement and to be united;
  it behoveth you to be in close communion one with the other,
  at one both in body and soul,
  till ye match the Pleiades
  or a string of lustrous pearls.
  • 'Abdu'l-Bahá, Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'l-Bahá p. 85

• Pleiades callin' her home
  Seven Sisters, she hears her distant Sisters.
  • Jimmy Buffett, Banana Wind (1996)Desdemona's Building a Rocket Ship

• Our shells clacked on the plates.
  My tongue was a filling estuary,
  My palate hung with starlight:
  As I tasted the salty Pleiades
  Orion dipped his foot into the water.
  • Seamus Heaney, Oysters

• Slave of the wheel of labor, what to him
  Are Plato and the swing of Pleiades?
  • Edwin Markham, The Man With the Hoe (1898)

• The Pleiades are an extraordinarily beautiful and brilliant star cluster in the constellation of Taurus. I have a large picture of them hanging in my recording studio, and sometimes when I look at this picture, I am inspired to compose a certain kind of music, which is very different from the music I usually compose, and very different from anything I have ever heard before. This album is a collection of those pieces.;
  • Gerald Jay Markoe, From the insert of the 1989 album Music From The Pleiades

• Though all I knew of the rote universe were those Pleiades, loosed in December,
  I promised you I'd set them to verse, so I'd always remember
  • Joanna Newsom, Ys (2006) Emily

• Can I get two maybe even three of these,
  Comin' from a space to teach you of the Pleiades.
  • Red Hot Chili Peppers, Can't Stop

• Many a night I saw the Pleiads, rising thro' the mellow shade,
  Glitter like a swarm of fireflies tangled in a silver braid.
  • Alfred Tennyson, Locksley Hall

• The ravening clouds shall not long be victorious,
  They shall not long possess the sky, they devour the stars only in apparition,
  Jupiter shall emerge, be patient, watch again another night, the Pleiades shall emerge,
  They are immortal…
  • Walt Whitman, in Leaves of Grass, "On the Beach at Night" (1871; 1881)

• Something there is more immortal even than the stars,
  (Many the burials, many the days and nights, passing away,)
  Something that shall endure longer even than lustrous Jupiter
  Longer than sun or any revolving satellite,
  Or the radiant sisters the Pleiades.
  • Walt Whitman, in Leaves of Grass, "On the Beach at Night" (1871; 1881)