THE INFINITE SHINING HEAVENS HE infinite shining heavens THE Rose and I saw in the night Uncountable angel stars I saw them distant as heaven, Night after night in my sorrow Till lo! I looked in the dusk And a star had come down to me. Robert Louis Stevenson Not in lone splendor hung aloft the night, And watching, with eternal lids apart, Like Nature's patient sleepless Eremite, The moving waters at their priestlike task Of pure ablution round earth's human shores, Or gazing on the new soft fallen mask Of snow upon the mountains and the moors No-yet still steadfast, still unchangeable, Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast, To feel for ever its soft fall and swell, Awake for ever in a sweet unrest, Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath, And so live ever- or else swoon to death. John Keats Q HYMN TO CYNTHIA UEEN and huntress, chaste and fair, State in wonted manner keep: Earth, let not thy envious shade Cynthia's shining orb was made Lay thy bow of pearl apart And thy crystal-shining quiver; Give unto the flying hart Space to breathe, how short soever: Goddess excellently bright! Ben Jonson AN APRIL NIGHT CLIMB with me, this April night, The silver ladder of the moonAll dew and danger and delight: Above the poplars soon, Into the lilac-scented sky, O climb with me till morn! Richard Le Gallienne MONDNACHT AS war, als hätt' der Himmel E Die Erde still geküsst, Dass sie im Blütenschimmer Die Luft ging durch die Felder, Und meine Seele spannte Flog durch die stillen Lande, Als flöge sie nach Haus. Joseph von Eichendorff F AN DEN MOND ÜLLEST wieder Busch und Thal Still mit Nebelglanz, Lösest endlich auch einmal Meine Seele ganz; Breitest über mein Gefild Lindernd deinen Blick, Wie des Freundes Auge mild Uber mein Geschick. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe I AM HE THAT WALKS WITH THE TENDER I AND GROWING NIGHT AM he that walks with the tender and growing night; I call to the earth and sea, half-held by the night. Press close, bare-bosom'd night! Press close, magnetic, nourishing night! Night of south winds! night of the large few stars! Still, nodding night! mad, naked, Summer night. Smile, O voluptuous, cool-breath'd earth! Earth of the slumbering and liquid trees; Earth of departed sunset! earth of the mountains, misty-topt! Earth of the vitreous pour of the full moon, just tinged with blue! Earth of shine and dark, mottling the tide of the river! Earth of the limpid gray of clouds, brighter and clearer for my sake! Far-swooping elbow'd earth! rich, apple-blossom'd earth! Smile for your lover comes! Prodigal, you have given me love! Therefore I to you give love! O unspeakable, passionate love! Walt Whitman EVENING AT PALERMO OW night descends with darkness: summer N° Swoons Through the wide temples of the windless sky; And on the mirrors of the waves, like moons, The breathing stars dilated languid lie: How cool to throbbing pulse and heated eye Are those smooth silver curves that round the bay Upon their sandy margent rest from play! How sweet it were on this mysterious night Of pulsing stars and splendors, from the shore Knee-deep to wade, and from the ripples bright To brush the phosphorescent foam-flowers hoar; Then with broad breast to cleave the watery floor, And floating, dreaming, through the sphere to swim Of silvery skies and silvery billows dim. What if the waves of dreamless Death, like these, Should soothe our senses aching with the shine Of Life's long radiance? O primeval ease, John Addington Symonds |