Hunter's Moon October 2011A Night Piece
by William Wordsworth
composed 1798, published 1815
--The sky is overcast
With a continuous cloud of texture close,
Heavy and wan, all whitened by the Moon,
Which through that veil is indistinctly seen,
A dull, contracted circle, yielding light
So feebly spread, that not a shadow falls,
Chequering the ground--from rock, plant, tree, or tower
At length a pleasant instantaneous gleam
Startles the pensive traveller while he treads
His lonesome path, with unobserving eye
Bent earthwards; he looks up--the clouds are split
Asunder,--and above his head he sees
The clear Moon, and the glory of the heavens.
There, in a black-blue vault she sails along,
Followed by multitudes of stars, that, small
And sharp, and bright, along the dark abyss
Drive as she drives: how fast they wheel away,
Yet vanish not!--the wind is in the tree,
But they are silent;--still they roll along
Immeasurably distant; and the vault,
Built round by those white clouds, enormous clouds,
Still deepens its unfathomable depth.
At length the Vision closes; and the mind,
Not undisturbed by the delight it feels,
Which slowly settles into peaceful calm,
Is left to muse upon the solemn scene.
Placed by Wordsworth among his "Poems of the Imagination" printed in the "Lyrical Ballads"
Javamom
*p.s. Many people don't realize that Nathaniel Hawthorne and his family lived in England for several years, where he served as Amercian Consul for President Pierce, from 1853-1857. They moved to Italy briefly, where they spent time in Rome and Florence, primarily. Then it was back to England where he wrote The Marble Faun in 1860. After that, the family moved back to Concord, MA, where they purchased their own home for the first time, from Bronson Alcott. The Alcotts called this home "Hillside" but Hawthorne renamed it "The Wayside."
The Wayside, not to be confused with Boston's "Wayside Inn." They are two different places.
Hawthorne had the small inspiration room added as a third floor after they purchased the home. It was where he loved to write, and spent many hours of his last four years of life.
This is what much of our backyard looks like this day ~ Still a lot of green!
Just beyond the tree closest to the deck, we are beginning to see the lovely changes of fall color.
