[ { "title": "Sonnet XLIV: Press'd by the Moon", "author": "Charlotte Smith", "lines": [ "Press'd by the Moon, mute arbitress of tides,", "While the loud equinox its power combines,", "The sea no more its swelling surge confines,", "But o'er the shrinking land sublimely rides.", "The wild blast, rising from the Western cave,", "Drives the huge billows from their heaving bed;", "Tears from their grassy tombs the village dead,", "And breaks the silent sabbath of the grave!", "With shells and sea-weed mingled, on the shore", "Lo! their bones whiten in the frequent wave;", "But vain to them the winds and waters rave;", "They hear the warring elements no more:", "While I am doom'd—by life's long storm opprest,", "To gaze with envy on their gloomy rest." ], "linecount": "14" }, { "title": "Which is the best -- the Moon or the Crescent?", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "Which is the best -- the Moon or the Crescent?", "Neither -- said the Moon --", "That is best which is not -- Achieve it --", "You efface the Sheen.", "", "Not of detention is Fruition --", "Shudder to attain.", "Transport's decomposition follows --", "He is Prism born." ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "The Moon was but a Chin of Gold", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "The Moon was but a Chin of Gold", "A Night or two ago --", "And now she turns Her perfect Face", "Upon the World below --", "", "Her Forehead is of Amplest Blonde --", "Her Cheek -- a Beryl hewn --", "Her Eye unto the Summer Dew", "The likest I have known --", "", "Her Lips of Amber never part --", "But what must be the smile", "Upon Her Friend she could confer", "Were such Her Silver Will --", "", "And what a privilege to be", "But the remotest Star --", "For Certainty She take Her Way", "Beside Your Palace Door --", "", "Her Bonnet is the Firmament --", "The Universe -- Her Shoe --", "The Stars -- the Trinkets at Her Belt --", "Her Dimities -- of Blue --" ], "linecount": "20" }, { "title": "The Moon upon her fluent Route", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "The Moon upon her fluent Route", "Defiant of a Road --", "The Star's Etruscan Argument", "Substantiate a God --", "", "If Aims impel these Astral Ones", "The ones allowed to know", "Know that which makes them as forgot", "As Dawn forgets them -- now --" ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "I watched the Moon around the House", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "I watched the Moon around the House", "Until upon a Pane --", "She stopped -- a Traveller's privilege -- for Rest --", "And there upon", "", "I gazed -- as at a stranger --", "The Lady in the Town", "Doth think no incivility", "To lift her Glass -- upon --", "", "But never Stranger justified", "The Curiosity", "Like Mine -- for not a Foot -- nor Hand --", "Nor Formula -- had she --", "", "But like a Head -- a Guillotine", "Slid carelessly away --", "Did independent, Amber --", "Sustain her in the sky --", "", "Or like a Stemless Flower --", "Upheld in rolling Air", "By finer Gravitations --", "Than bind Philosopher --", "", "No Hunger -- had she -- nor an Inn --", "Her Toilette -- to suffice --", "Nor Avocation -- nor Concern", "For little Mysteries", "", "As harass us -- like Life -- and Death --", "And Afterwards -- or Nay --", "But seemed engrossed to Absolute --", "With shining -- and the Sky --", "", "The privilege to scrutinize", "Was scarce upon my Eyes", "When, with a Silver practise --", "She vaulted out of Gaze --", "", "And next -- I met her on a Cloud --", "Myself too far below", "To follow her superior Road --", "Or its advantage -- Blue --" ], "linecount": "36" }, { "title": "You know that Portrait in the Moon --", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "You know that Portrait in the Moon --", "So tell me who 'tis like --", "The very Brow -- the stooping eyes --", "A fog for -- Say -- Whose Sake?", "", "The very Pattern of the Cheek --", "It varies -- in the Chin --", "But -- Ishmael -- since we met -- 'tis long --", "And fashions -- intervene --", "", "When Moon's at full -- 'Tis Thou -- I say --", "My lips just hold the name --", "When crescent -- Thou art worn -- I note --", "But -- there -- the Golden Same --", "", "And when -- Some Night -- Bold -- slashing Clouds", "Cut Thee away from Me --", "That's easier -- than the other film", "That glazes Holiday --" ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "The Moon is distant from the Sea", "author": "Emily Dickinson", "lines": [ "The Moon is distant from the Sea --", "And yet, with Amber Hands --", "She leads Him -- docile as a Boy --", "Along appointed Sands --", "", "He never misses a Degree --", "Obedient to Her Eye", "He comes just so far -- toward the Town --", "Just so far -- goes away --", "", "Oh, Signor, Thine, the Amber Hand --", "And mine -- the distant Sea --", "Obedient to the least command", "Thine eye impose on me --" ], "linecount": "12" }, { "title": "The Moon Maiden's Song", "author": "Ernest Dowson", "lines": [ "Sleep! Cast thy canopy", " Over this sleeper's brain,", "Dim grow his memory,", " When he wake again.", "", "Love stays a summer night,", " Till lights of morning come;", "Then takes her winged flight", " Back to her starry home.", "", "Sleep! Yet thy days are mine;", " Love's seal is over thee:", "Far though my ways from thine,", " Dim though thy memory.", "", "Love stays a summer night,", " Till lights of morning come;", "Then takes her winged flight", " Back to her starry home." ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "The Moon", "author": "Henry David Thoreau", "lines": [ "Time wears her not; she doth his chariot guide;", "Mortality below her orb is placed.", "--Raleigh", "", "The full-orbed moon with unchanged ray", "Mounts up the eastern sky,", "Not doomed to these short nights for aye,", "But shining steadily.", "", "She does not wane, but my fortune,", "Which her rays do not bless,", "My wayward path declineth soon,", "But she shines not the less.", "", "And if she faintly glimmers here,", "And paled is her light,", "Yet alway in her proper sphere", "She's mistress of the night." ], "linecount": "15" }, { "title": "Memoriam A. H. H.: 67. When on my bed the moonlight fall", "author": "Lord Alfred Tennyson", "lines": [ "When on my bed the moonlight falls,", "I know that in thy place of rest", "By that broad water of the west,", "There comes a glory on the walls:", "Thy marble bright in dark appears,", "As slowly steals a silver flame", "Along the letters of thy name,", "And o'er the number of thy years.", "The mystic glory swims away;", "From off my bed the moonlight dies;", "And closing eaves of wearied eyes", "I sleep till dusk is dipt in gray:", "", "And then I know the mist is drawn", "A lucid veil from coast to coast,", "And in the dark church like a ghost", "Thy tablet glimmers to the dawn." ], "linecount": "16" }, { "title": "Ode to the Moon", "author": "Robinson", "lines": [ "PALE GODDESS of the witching hour;", "Blest Contemplation's placid friend;", "Oft in my solitary bow'r,", "I mark thy lucid beam", "From thy crystal car descend,", "Whitening the spangled heath, and limpid sapphire stream.", "", "And oft, amidst the shades of night", "I court thy undulating light;", "When Fairies dance around the verdant ring,", "Or frisk beside the bubbling spring,", "When the thoughtless SHEPHERD'S song", "Echoes thro' the silent air,", "As he pens his fleecy care,", "Or plods with saunt'ring gait, the dewy meads along.", "", "CHASTE ORB! as thro' the vaulted sky", "Feath'ry clouds transparent sail;", "When thy languid, weeping eye,", "Sheds its soft tears upon the painted vale;", "As I ponder o'er the floods,", "Or tread with listless step, th'embow'ring woods,", "O, let thy transitory beam,", "Soothe my sad mind, with FANCY'S aëry dream.", "", "Wrapt in REFLECTION, let me trace", "O'er the vast ethereal space,", "Stars, whose twinkling fires illume", "Dark-brow'd NIGHT'S obtrusive gloom;", "Where across the concave wide;", "Flaming METEORS swiftly glide;", "Or along the milky way,", "Vapours shoot a silvery ray;", "And as I mark, thy faint reclining head,", "Sinking on Ocean's pearly bed;", "Let REASON tell my soul, thus all things fade.", "", "The Seasons change, the \"garish SUN\"", "When Day's burning car hath run", "Its fiery course, no more we view,", "While o'er the mountain's golden head,", "Streak'd with tints of crimson hue,", "Twilight's filmy curtains spread,", "Stealing o'er Nature's face, a desolating shade.", "", "Yon musky FLOW'R, that scents the earth;", "The SOD, that gave its odours birth;", "The ROCK, that breaks the torrent's force;", "The VALE, that owns its wand'ring course;", "The woodlands where the vocal throng", "Trill the wild melodious song;", "Thirsty desarts, sands that glow,", "Mountains, cap'd with flaky snow;", "Luxuriant groves, enamell'd fields,", "All, all, prolific Nature yields,", "Alike shall end; the sensate HEART,", "With all its passions, all its fire,", "Touch'd by FATE'S unerring dart,", "Shall feel its vital strength expire;", "Those eyes, that beam with FRIENDSHIP'S ray,", "And glance ineffable delight,", "Shall shrink from LIFE'S translucid day,", "And close their fainting orbs, in DEATH'S impervious night.", "", "Then what remains for mortal pow'r;", "But TIME'S dull journey to beguile;", "To deck with joy, the winged hour,", "To meet its sorrows with a patient smile;", "And when the toilsome pilgrimage shall end,", "To greet the tyrant, as a welcome friend." ], "linecount": "64" }, { "title": "Fragment: To the Moon", "author": "Percy Bysshe Shelley", "lines": [ "Bright wanderer, fair coquette of Heaven,", "To whom alone it has been given", "To change and be adored for ever,", "Envy not this dim world, for never", "But once within its shadow grew", "One fair as--" ], "linecount": "6" }, { "title": "The Moon", "author": "Robert Louis Stevenson", "lines": [ "The moon has a face like the clock in the hall;", "She shines on thieves on the garden wall,", "On streets and fields and harbour quays,", "And birdies asleep in the forks of the trees.", "", "The squalling cat and the squeaking mouse,", "The howling dog by the door of the house,", "The bat that lies in bed at noon,", "All love to be out by the light of the moon.", "", "But all of the things that belong to the day", "Cuddle to sleep to be out of her way;", "And flowers and children close their eyes", "Till up in the morning the sun shall arise." ], "linecount": "12" }, { "title": "The Moon, how definite its orb! (fragment)", "author": "Samuel Coleridge", "lines": [ "The Moon, how definite its orb!", "Yet gaze again, and with a steady gaze--", "'Tis there indeed,--but where is it not?--", "It is suffused o'er all the sapphire Heaven,", "Trees, herbage, snake-like stream, unwrinkled Lake,", "Whose very murmur does of it partake", "And low and close the broad smooth mountain", "Is more a thing of Heaven than when", "Distinct by one dim shade and yet undivided from the universal cloud", "In which it towers, finite in height." ], "linecount": "10" }, { "title": "While Gazing on the Moon's Light", "author": "Thomas Moore", "lines": [ "While gazing on the moon's light,", "A moment from her smile I turn'd,", "To look at orbs that, more bright,", "In lone and distant glory burn'd.", "But too far", "Each proud star,", "For me to feel its warming flame;", "Much more dear", "That mild sphere,", "Which near our planet smiling came;", "Thus, Mary, be but thou my own,", "While brighter eyes unheeded play,", "I'll love those moonlight looks alone", "That bless my home and guide my way.", "", "The day had sunk in dim showers,", "But midnight now, with lustre meet,", "Illumined all the pale flowers,", "Like hope upon a mourner's cheek.", "I said (while", "The moon's smile", "Play'd o'er a stream, in dimpling bliss,)", "\"The moon looks", "On many brooks,", "The brook can see no moon but this;\"", "And thus, I thought, our fortunes run,", "For many a lover looks to thee,", "While oh! I feel there is but one,", "One Mary in the world for me." ], "linecount": "28" }, { "title": "On An Eclipse Of The Moon", "author": "Walter Savage Landor", "lines": [ "Struggling, and faint, and fainter didst thou wane,", "O Moon! and round thee all thy starry train", "Came forth to help thee, with half-open eyes,", "And trembled every one with still surprise,", "That the black Spectre should have dared assail", "Their beauteous queen and seize her sacred veil" ], "linecount": "6" }, { "title": "The Moon", "author": "William Topaz McGonagall", "lines": [ "Beautiful Moon, with thy silvery light,", "Thou seemest most charming to my sight;", "As I gaze upon thee in the sky so high,", "A tear of joy does moisten mine eye.", "", "Beautiful Moon, with thy silvery light,", "Thou cheerest the Esquimau in the night;", "For thou lettest him see to harpoon the fish,", "And with them he makes a dainty dish.", "", "Beautiful Moon, with thy silvery light,", "Thou cheerest the fox in the night,", "And lettest him see to steal the grey goose away", "Out of the farm-yard from a stack of hay.", "", "Beautiful Moon, with thy silvery light,", "Thou cheerest the farmer in the night,", "and makes his heart beat high with delight", "As he views his crops by the light in the night.", "", "Beautiful Moon, with thy silvery light,", "Thou cheerest the eagle in the night,", "And lettest him see to devour his prey", "And carry it to his nest away.", "", "Beautiful Moon, with thy silvery light,", "Thou cheerest the mariner in the night", "As he paces the deck alone,", "Thinking of his dear friends at home.", "", "Beautiful Moon, with thy silvery light,", "Thou cheerest the weary traveller in the night;", "For thou lightest up the wayside around", "To him when he is homeward bound.", "", "Beautiful Moon, with thy silvery light,", "Thou cheerest the lovers in the night", "As they walk through the shady groves alone,", "Making love to each other before they go home.", "", "Beautiful Moon, with thy silvery light,", "Thou cheerest the poacher in the night;", "For thou lettest him see to set his snares", "To catch the rabbit and the hares." ], "linecount": "36" }, { "title": "Variation of the Song of the Moon", "author": "Percy Bysshe Shelley", "lines": [ "(\"PROMETHEUS UNBOUND\", ACT 4.)", "", "As a violet's gentle eye", "Gazes on the azure sky", "Until its hue grows like what it beholds;", "As a gray and empty mist", "Lies like solid amethyst", "Over the western mountain it enfolds,", "When the sunset sleeps", "Upon its snow;", "As a strain of sweetest sound", "Wraps itself the wind around", "Until the voiceless wind be music too;", "As aught dark, vain, and dull,", "Basking in what is beautiful,", "Is full of light and love--" ], "linecount": "15" }, { "title": "To the Moon", "author": "Percy Bysshe Shelley", "lines": [ "Art thou pale for weariness", "Of climbing heaven and gazing on the earth,", "Wandering companionless", "Among the stars that have a different birth,--", "And ever changing, like a joyless eye", "That finds no object worth its constancy?", "", "Thou chosen sister of the Spirit,", "That grazes on thee till in thee it pities..." ], "linecount": "8" }, { "title": "Homer's Hymn to the Moon", "author": "Percy Bysshe Shelley", "lines": [ "Daughters of Jove, whose voice is melody,", "Muses, who know and rule all minstrelsy", "Sing the wide-winged Moon! Around the earth,", "From her immortal head in Heaven shot forth,", "Far light is scattered--boundless glory springs;", "Where'er she spreads her many-beaming wings", "The lampless air glows round her golden crown.", "", "But when the Moon divine from Heaven is gone", "Under the sea, her beams within abide,", "Till, bathing her bright limbs in Ocean's tide,", "Clothing her form in garments glittering far,", "And having yoked to her immortal car", "The beam-invested steeds whose necks on high", "Curve back, she drives to a remoter sky", "A western Crescent, borne impetuously.", "Then is made full the circle of her light,", "And as she grows, her beams more bright and bright", "Are poured from Heaven, where she is hovering then,", "A wonder and a sign to mortal men.", "", "The Son of Saturn with this glorious Power", "Mingled in love and sleep--to whom she bore", "Pandeia, a bright maid of beauty rare", "Among the Gods, whose lives eternal are.", "", "Hail Queen, great Moon, white-armed Divinity,", "Fair-haired and favourable! thus with thee", "My song beginning, by its music sweet", "Shall make immortal many a glorious feat", "Of demigods, with lovely lips, so well", "Which minstrels, servants of the Muses, tell." ], "linecount": "29" }, { "title": "To the Moonbeam", "author": "Percy Bysshe Shelley", "lines": [ "Moonbeam, leave the shadowy vale,", "To bathe this burning brow.", "Moonbeam, why art thou so pale,", "As thou walkest o'er the dewy dale,", "Where humble wild-flowers grow?", "Is it to mimic me?", "But that can never be;", "For thine orb is bright,", "And the clouds are light,", "That at intervals shadow the star-studded night.", "", "Now all is deathy still on earth;", "Nature's tired frame reposes;", "And, ere the golden morning's birth", "Its radiant hues discloses,", "Flies forth its balmy breath.", "But mine is the midnight of Death,", "And Nature's morn", "To my bosom forlorn", "Brings but a gloomier night, implants a deadlier thorn.", "", "Wretch! Suppress the glare of madness", "Struggling in thine haggard eye,", "For the keenest throb of sadness,", "Pale Despair's most sickening sigh,", "Is but to mimic me;", "And this must ever be,", "When the twilight of care,", "And the night of despair,", "Seem in my breast but joys to the pangs that rankle there." ], "linecount": "28" } ]