With how sad steps, O moon, though climb'st the skies,
    How silently, and with how wan a face.

-Sir Philip Sidney, (1554-1586)
With How Sad Steps, O Moon, Thou Climb'st the skies!





Enchantment (Guadalupe Mountains)

Thee, chauntress, oft the woods among,
I woo to hear thy evensong;
And missing thee, I walk unseen
On the dry smooth-shaven green,
To behold the wandering moon,
Riding near her highest noon,
Like one that had been led astray
Through the heavens' wide pathless way;

-John Milton (1608-1674),
Il Penseroso





Sleepy Light (Rainier)

Your courteous lights in vain you waste,
Since Juliana here is come,
For she my mind hath so displaced
That I shall never find my home.

-Andrew Marvell (1621-1678),
The Mower to the Glow-Worms





Silver Night (Rainier)

Earth, let not thy envious shade
Dare itself to interpose;
Cynthia's shining orb was made
Heaven to clear when day did close:
    Bless us then with wishèd sight,
    Goddess excellently bright.

-Ben Johnson (1572-1637),
Hymn to Diana,
from Cynthia's Revels





Beckon (Rainier)

Let us go in; the fog is rising.

-Emily Dickinson (1830-1886),
Attributed last words.
A Certain World





Gone into the Light (Rainier)

They are all gone into the world of light!
    And I alone sit lingering here;
Their very memory is fair and bright,
    And my sad thoughts doth clear.

-Henry Vaughan (1622-1695),
Silex Scintillans (1655), They Are All Gone





I Saw Eternity (Rainier)

I saw Eternity the other night
Like a great ring of pure and endless light.
    All calm, as it was bright;
And round beneath it, Time in hours, days, years,
    Driv'n by the spheres
Like a vast shadow mov'd; in which the world
    And all her train were hurl'd.

-Henry Vaughan (1622-1695),
Silex Scintillans (1655), The World





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





Meet Me by Moonlight (Rainier)

Meet Me by Moonlight Alone.

-Joseph Augustine Wade (1796-1845),
Title of Poem





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







previous pictures of the moon
more pictures of the moon




images © 1999 by Randy Wang
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