Night

"Öö ees, surm selja taga. (EVS)"

"Night falls. Or has fallen. Why is it that night falls, instead of rising, like the dawn? Yet if you look east, at sunset, you can see night rising, not falling; darkness lifting into the sky, up from the horizon, like a black sun behind cloud cover. Like smoke from an unseen fire, a line of fire just below the horizon, brushfire or a burning city. Maybe night falls because it’s heavy, a thick curtain pulled up over the eyes. Wool blanket."

"The longest day at last bends down to evening."

"Came in wan night The shadow-goer stepping."

"But we that have but span-long life, The thicker must lay on the pleasure; And since time will not stay, We'll add night to the day, Thus, thus we'll fill the measure."

"Night comes, world-jewelled, * * * The stars rush forth in myriads as to wage War with the lines of Darkness; and the moon, Pale ghost of Night, comes haunting the cold earth After the sun's red sea-death—quietless."

"The Night has a thousand eyes, The Day but one; Yet the light of the bright world dies With the dying sun."

"Night's black Mantle covers all alike."

"II est doux, à travers les brumes, de voir naître L'étoile dans l'azur, la lampe à la fenêtre Les fleuves de charbon monter au firmament Et la lune verser son pâle enchantement. Je verrai les printemps, les étés, les automnes; Et quand viendra l'hiver aux neiges monotones, Je fermerai partout portières et volets Pour bâtir dans la nuit mes féeriques palais."

"II était tard; ainsi qu'une médaille neuve La pleine lune s'étalait, Et la solennité de la nuit, comme un fleuve, Sur Paris dormant ruisselait."

"I am the Night, I am Batman."

"Two years of nights have turned me into a nocturnal animal."

"I live among the creatures of the night I haven't got the will to try and fight Against a new tomorrow, so I guess I'll just believe it That tomorrow never comes. A safe night, I'm living in the forest of my dream I know the night is not as it would seem I must believe in something, so I'll make myself believe it That this night will never go."

"When it draws near to witching time of night."

"I love night more than day—she is so lovely; But I love night the most because she brings My love to me in dreams which scarcely lie."

"Oh God, midnight’s not bad, you wake and go back to sleep, one or two’s not bad, you toss but sleep again. Five or six in the morning, there’s hope, for dawn’s just under the horizon. But three, now, Christ, three ! Doctors say the body’s at low tide then. The soul is out. The blood moves slow. You’re the nearest to dead you’ll ever be save dying. Sleep is a patch of death, but three in the morn, full wide-eyed staring, is living death! You dream with your eyes open. God, if you had strength to rouse up, you’d slaughter your half-dreams with buckshot! But no, you lie pinned to a deep well-bottom that’s burned dry. The moon rolls by to look at you down there, with its idiot face. It’s a long way back to sunset, a far way on to dawn, so you summon all the fool things of your life, the stupid lovely things done with people known so very well who are now so very dead – And wasn’t it true, had he read somewhere, more people in hospitals die at 3 than at any other time...?"

"The night is the hardest time to be alive...and 4 knows all my secrets."

"Some nights are made for torture, or reflection, or the savoring of loneliness."

"I love the silent hour of night, For blissful dreams may then arise, Revealing to my charmèd sight, What may not bless my waking eyes."

"Night was come, and her planets were risen: a safe, still night: too serene for the companionship of fear."

"Most glorious night! Thou wert not sent for slumber!"

"For the night Shows stars and women in a better light."

"The stars are forth, the moon above the tops Of the snow-shining mountains—Beautiful! I linger yet with Nature, for the night Hath been to me a more familiar face Than that of man; and in her starry shade Of dim and solitary loveliness I learn'd the language of another world."

"The Shadows now so long do grow, That Brambles like tall Cedars show, Mole-hills seem Mountains, and the Ant Appears a monstrous Elephant."

"There never was night that had no morn."

"It was a wonderful night, such a night as is only possible when we are young, dear reader. The sky was so starry, so bright that, looking at it, one could not help asking oneself whether ill-humoured and capricious people could live under such a sky. That is a youthful question too, dear reader, very youthful, but may the Lord put it more frequently into your heart!"

"Dark the Night, with breath all flowers, And tender broken voice that fills With ravishment the listening hours,— Whisperings, wooings, Liquid ripples, and soft ring-dove cooings In low-toned rhythm that love's aching stills! Dark the night Yet is she bright, For in her dark she brings the mystic star, Trembling yet strong, as is the voice of love, From some unknown afar."

"O radiant Dark! O darkly fostered ray! Thou hast a joy too deep for shallow Day."

"The unwelcome November rain had perversely stolen the day's last hour and pawned it with that ancient fence, the night."

"I have been one acquainted with the night. I have walked out in rain—and back in rain. I have outwalked the furthest city light."

"The uniform darkness, fount of the gods, The place from which the birds come... Open to the Duat that is on her northern side With her rear in the east and her head in the west."

"The watch-dog's voice that bay'd the whispering wind, And the loud laugh that spoke the vacant mind: These all in sweet confusion sought the shade, And fill'd each pause the nightingale had made."

"Why are the heavens not filled with light? Why is the universe plunged into darkness?"

"Slowly, gently night unfurls its splendour. Grasp it, sense it, tremulous and tender. Turn your face away from the garish light of day, Turn your thoughts away from cold, unfeeling light, And listen to the music of the night."

"A late lark twitters from the quiet skies: And from the west, Where the sun, his day's work ended, Lingers as in content, There falls on the old, gray city An influence luminous and serene, A shining peace."

"The smoke ascends In a rosy-and-golden haze. The spires Shine and are changed. In the valley Shadows rise. The lark sings on. The sun Closing his benediction, Sinks, and the darkening air Thrills with the sense of the triumphing night,— Night with train of stars And her great gift of sleep."

"There is a dead spot in the night, that coldest, blackest time when the world has forgotten evening and dawn is not yet a promise. A time when it is far too early to arise, but so late that going to bed makes small sense."

"Now deep in ocean sunk the lamp of light, And drew behind the cloudy vale of night."

"At night, to his own dark fancies a prey, He lies like a hedgehog rolled up the wrong way, Tormenting himself with his prickles."

"Then, as he wended his way, by swamp and stream and awful woodland, to the farm-house where he happened to be quartered, every sound of nature, at that witching hour, fluttered his excited imagination: the moan of the whip-poor-will from the hill side; the boding cry of the tree-toad, that harbinger of storm; the dreary hooting of the screech-owl; or the sudden rustling in the thicket of birds frightened from their roost. The fire-flies, too, which sparkled most vividly in the darkest places, now and then startled him, as one of uncommon brightness would stream across his path; and if, by chance, a huge blockhead of a beetle came winging his blundering flight against him, the poor varlet was ready to give up the ghost, with the idea that he was struck with a witch's token."

"The whole length of the night is as the day to them, and the coming of darkness is as the rising of the sun by reason of that hope which exalts their hearts and inebriates them by its meditation."

"Watchman, what of the night?"

"Night, when deep sleep falleth on men."

"The night cometh when no man can work."

"'Tis the witching hour of night, Orbed is the moon and bright, And the stars they glisten, glisten, Seeming with bright eyes to listen— For what listen they?"

"Now Rann, the Kite, brings home the night That Mang, the Bat, sets free— The herds are shut in byre and hut, For loosed till dawn are we. This is the hour of pride and power, Talon and tush and claw. Oh, hear the call!—Good hunting all That keep the Jungle Law!"

"Noć je saveznik tužnih ljudi."

"People talk about nightfall, or night falling, or dusk falling, and it’s never seemed right to me. Perhaps they once meant befalling. As in night befalls. As in night happens. Perhaps they, whoever they were, thought of a falling sun. That might be it, except that that ought to give us dayfall. Day fell on Rupert the Bear. And we know, if we’ve ever read a book, that day doesn’t fall or rise. It breaks. In books, day breaks, and night falls. In life, night rises from the ground. The day hangs on for as long as it can, bright and eager, absolutely and positively the last guest to leave the party, while the ground darkens, oozing night around your ankles, swallowing for ever that dropped contact lens, making you miss that low catch in the gully on the last ball of the last over."

"In the dark I rest, unready for the light which dawns day after day, eager to be shared. Black silk, shelter me. I need more of the night before I open eyes and heart to illumination. I must still grow in the dark like a root not ready, not ready at all."

"The summer demands and takes away too much. But night, the reserved, the reticent, gives more than it takes."