Caress of Stars

the damp death     Quenched its caress upon his icy lips,         And, as a dying meteor stains a wreath     Of moonlight vapour which the cold night clips, It flushed through his pale limbs, and passed to its eclipse. -Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), Adonais

Dark Dreams

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before; But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token, -Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), The Raven

Dews of Heaven

Her tears fell with the dews at even;     Her tears fell ere the dews were dried; She could not look on the sweet heaven,     Either at morn or eventide. -Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892), Mariana

Armies of the Night

Ah, love, let us be true To one another! for the world, which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night. -Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), Dover Beach

Eternal Sleep

Then star nor sun shall waken, Nor any change of light: Nor sound of waters shaken, Nor any sound or sight; Nor wintry leaves nor vernal, Nor days nor things diurnal; Only the sleep eternal In an eternal night. -Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909), The Garden of Proserpine

Moonlight Vapor

the damp death     Quenched its caress upon his icy lips,         And, as a dying meteor stains a wreath     Of moonlight vapour which the cold night clips, It flushed through his pale limbs, and passed to its eclipse. -Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), Adonais

Starry Night

Wrap thy form in a mantle gray,     Star-inwrought! Blind with thine hair the eyes of Day; Kiss her until she be wearied out, Then wander o'er city, and sea, and land, Touching all with thine opiate wand--     Come, long-sought! -Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822), To Night

Falling Stars

Go and catch a falling star -John Donne (1572-1631), Go and Catch a Falling Star

Ghosts and Shadows

By a knight of ghosts and shadows I summon'd am to a tourney Ten leagues beyond the wide world's end: Methinks it is no journey. -Anonymous (c.1400 - c.1600), Tom o' Bedlam's Song

Hope

Alas for him who never sees The stars shine through his cypress-trees! Who, hopeless, lays his dead away, Nor looks to see the breaking day Across the mournful marbles play! Who hath not learned, in hours of faith,     The truth to flesh and sense unknown, That Life is ever lord of Death,     And Love can never lose its own! -John Greenleaf Whittier (1807 - 1892), Snow-Bound; A Winter Idyl