Embracing Light (Kings Canyon)

But let my due feet never fail To walk the studious cloister's pale, And love the high embowèd roof, With antic pillars massy proof, And storied windows richly dight, Casting a dim, religious light. -John Milton (1608-1674), Il Penseroso

Pilgrims (Kings Canyon)

There came at night into that lodging-place Twenty-nine in a group Of sundry people, by chance fallen Into fellowship, and they were all pilgrims Wanting to ride toward Canterbury. -Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1340-1400), The Canterbury Tales

Hermitage in the Mirror (Yosemite)

And thus invoke us, "You, whom reverend love     Made one another's hermitage;     You, to whom love was peace, that now is rage; Who did the whole world's soul contract, and drove         Into the glasses of your eyes         (So made such mirrors, and such spies, That they did all to you epitomize);     Countries, towns, courts beg from above     A pattern of your love." -John Donne (1572-1631), The Canonization

Weep No More (Yosemite)

Weep you no more, sad fountains;     What need you flow so fast? -Anonymous (c.1400-c.1600), Weep You No More, Sad Fountains

Dancer (Yosemite)

O body swayed to music, O brightening glance, How can we know the dancer from the dance? -William Butler Yeats, Among School Children, 1927

Waves Aflame (SF Bay)

The western wave was all aflame. The day was well nigh done! Almost upon the western wave Rested the broad bright Sun; -Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, 1798

Secret Joy (Wallace Falls)

Thou joy'st in better marks, of soil, of air, Of wood, of water; therein thou art fair. -Ben Johnson (1572-1637), To Penshurst

Burden (SF Bay)

For forty days and forty nights     He wade thro red blude to the knee, And he saw neither sun nor moon,     But heard the roaring of the sea. -Anonymous (c.1400-c.1600), Thomas the Rhymer

Silent Night (Princeton)

Since she enjoys her long night's festival, Let me prepare towards her, and let me call This hour her Vigil, and her Eve, since this Both the year's, and the day's deep midnight is. -John Donne (1572-1631), A Nocturnal upon St. Lucy's Day, Being the Shortest Day

Soul of Light (The Great Smoky Mountains)

Do but look on her eyes, they do light     All that Love's world compriseth! Do but look on her hair, it is bright     As Love's star when it riseth! -Ben Johnson (1572-1637), The Triumph of Charis, from A Celebration of Charis in Ten Lyric Pieces

Flight of the Soul (The Great Smoky Mountains)

Here at the fountain's sliding foot, Or at some fruit-tree's mossy root, Casting the body's vest aside, My soul into the boughs does glide; -Andrew Marvell (1621-1678), The Garden

Parallel Worlds (White Sands)

As lines, so loves, oblique may well Themselves in every angle greet; But ours so truly parallel, Though infinite, can never meet. -Andrew Marvell (1621-1678), The Definition of Love

When Fair Things Are Fading Away (White Sands)

I'd be a butterfly; living a rover, Dying when fair things are fading away! -Thomas Haynes Bayly (1797-1839), I'd Be Butterfly

Window of Dreams (Carlsbad)

I arise from dreams of thee, And a spirit in my feet Hath led me--who knows how? To thy chamber window, Sweet! -Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Indian Serenade, 1822

Let There Be Light (Carlsbad)

Let there be light. -The Old Testament, Genesis 1:1-3

A Lost Legend (Carlsbad)

She sigh'd for Agnes' dreams,         sweetest of the year. Asleep in lap of legends old. -John Keats, The Eve of St. Agnes, 1820

Cloud City (Rainier)

Even so my son one early morn did shine With all-trimphant splendour on my brow; But, out, alack! he was but one hour mine, The region cloud hath mask'd him from me now. -William Shakespeare (1564-1616), Full Many a Glorious Morning Have I Seen, Sonnet XXXIII

Tears from Heaven (Rainier)

He gave to Mis'ry all he had, a tear, He gained from Heav'n ('twas all he wished) a friend. -Thomas Gray (1716-1771), Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, The Epitaph

Dance of the Spirit (Rainier)

While all the night, through fog-smoke white, Glimmered the white Moon-shine. -Samuel Taylor Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, 1798

Wonder Land (Rainier)

I thou be'st borne to strange sights,     Things invisible to see, Ride ten thousand days and nights,     Till age snow white hairs on thee. -John Donne (1572-1631), Go and Catch a Falling Star

Endless Night (Rainier)

And, as a vapor or a drop of rain,     Once lost, can ne'er be found again,     So when or you or I are made     A fable, song, or fleeting shade,     All love, all liking, all delight     Lies drowned with us in endless night. -Robert Herrick (1591-1673), Corinna's Going a-Maying

Immortality (Rainier)

Lead me from the unreal to the real! Lead me from darkness to light! Lead me from death to immortality! -The Upanishads (800-500 B.C.), Brihadaranyaka Upanishad

Light and Motion (Rainier)

But thou wilt never more appear Folded within my hemisphere: Since both thy light and motion Like a fled star is fall'n and gone; -Henry King (1592-1669), Exequy on His Wife

Fleeing Light (Rainier)

But, O! as to embrace me she inclined, I waked, she fled, and day brought back my night. -John Milton (1608-1674), On His Deceased Wife