Moonlight
.
Darker than the day,
Clearer than the night,
Shines the mellow moonlight.
.
From the rocky heights
Shapes to shimmer clad
Mistily are mounting.
.
Pearls of silver dew,
Soft-distilling, drop
On the silent meadows.
.
Might of sweetest song
Wish the gloomy woods
Philomels mingleth.
.
Far in ether wide
Yawns the dread abyss
Of deep worlds uncounted.
.
Neither eye nor ear,
Seeking, findeth here
The end of mazy thinking.
.
Evermore the wheel
Of unmeasured Time
Turns round all existence;
.
And it bears away
Swift, how swift! the prey
Of fleet-flitting mortals.
.
Where soft breezes blow,
Where thou seest the row
Of smooth-shining beeches;
.
Driven from the flood
Of the thronging Time,
Lina’s hut receives me.
.
Brighter than aloft
In night’s shimmering star,
Peace with her is shining.
.
And the vale so sweet,
And the sweet moonlight,
Where she dwells, is sweeter.
..
.