These beauteous forms,
Through a long absence, have not been to me
As is a landscape to a blind man's eye;
But oft, in lonely rooms, and 'mid the din
Of towns and cities, I have owed to them,
In hours of weariness sensations sweet,
Felt in the Blood, and felt among the heart.

-William Wordsworth,
Lines Composed a Few Miles
above Tintern Abbey
, 1798





Fire and Water

We went through fire and through water.

-The Bible, Psalms 66:12





Water and Wind

And this was all the Harvest that I reap'd--
"I came like Water, and like Wind I go."

-Edward Fitzgerald,
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam





Cascades over Pines

Clear cascades!
Into the waves scatter
Blue pine needles.

-Matsuo Basho,
Conversations with Basho.
From the Collection Kyoraisho Hyokai





Prayer

This used to be among my prayers.
--a piece of land not so very large,
which would contain a garden, and
near the house a spring of ever-flowing
water, and beyond these a bit of wood.

-Horace, Satires, 30 BC





The Wise, Great, and Good

Thou hast a voice, great Mountain, to repeal
Large codes of fraud and woe; not understood
By all, but which the wise, and great, and good
Interpret, or make felt, or deeply feel.

-Percy Bysshe Shelley,
Mont Blanc





A Newer World

The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks;
The long day wanes, the low moon climbs; the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.

-Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Ulysses





A Celestial Thought

Happy those early days! when I
Shined in my angel-infancy.
Before I understood this place
Appointed for my second race,
or taught my soul to fancy ought
But a white, celestial thought,
When yet I had not walked above
A mile or two, from my first love,
And looking back (at that short space)
Could see a glimpse of his bright face;

-Henry Vaughan, The Retreat, 1650





The Windhover

I caught this morning morning's minion, king-
    dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
    Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
    As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
    Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird,--the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!

-Gerard Manley Hopkins, The Windhover





Deep Seclusion

Once again
Once again
Do I behold these steep and lofty cliffs,
That on a wild secluded scene impress
Thoughts of more deep seclusion;

-William Wordsworth,
Lines Composed a Few Miles
above Tintern Abbey
, 1798





Silver Lake

On thy fair bosom, silver lake,
The wild swan spreads his snowy sail,
And round his breast the ripples break
As down he bears before the gale.

-James G. Percival,
To Seneca Lake







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images © 1998 by Randy Wang
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