Night

"Now the hungry lion roars, And the wolf behowls the moon; Whilst the heavy ploughman snores, All with weary task foredone."

"This is the night That either makes me or fordoes me quite."

"Come, gentle night, come, loving, blackbrow'd night."

"How beautiful this night! the balmiest sigh Which Vernal Zephyrs breathe in evening's ear Were discord to the speaking quietude That wraps this moveless scene. Heaven's ebon vault, Studded with stars, unutterably bright, Through which the moon's unclouded grandeur rolls, Seems like a canopy which love has spread To curtain her sleeping world."

"Swiftly walk over the western wave, Spirit of Night!"

"Night is a time of rigor, but also of mercy. There are truths which one can see only when it’s dark."

"In day-time we investigate, but at night believe."

"It is as though night set free the soul and taught its independence of physical organization."

"How beautiful is night! A dewy freshness fills the silent air; No mist obscures, nor cloud nor speck nor stain Breaks the serene of heaven."

"The longest way must have its close,—the gloomiest night will wear on to a morning."

"Moonlight knew no colors and traced the contours of the terrain only very softly. It covered the land a dirty gray, strangling life all night long. This world molded in lead, where nothing moved but the wind that fell sometimes like a shadow over the gray forests, and where nothing lived but the scent of the naked earth, was the only world he accepted, for it was much like the world of his soul."

"Down the hill I went, and then, I forgot the ways of men, For night-scents, heady and damp and cool Wakened ecstasy in me On the brink of a shining pool."

"Dead sounds at night come from the inmost hills, Like footsteps upon wool."

"Now droops the milkwhite peacock like a ghost, And like a ghost she glimmers on to me. Now lies the Earth all Danaë to the stars, And all thy heart lies open unto me. Now slides the silent meteor on, and leaves A shining furrow, as thy thoughts in me."

"I was heavy with the even, When she fit her glimmering tapers Round the day's dead sanctities."

"Now black and deep the Night begins to fall, A shade immense! Sunk in the quenching Gloom, Magnificent and vast, are heaven and earth. Order confounded lies; all beauty void, Distinction lost, and gay variety One universal blot: such the fair power Of light, to kindle and create the whole."

"Night is a stealthy, evil Raven, Wrapt to the eyes in his black wings."

"This is the ending. Now not day only shall be beloved, but night too shall be beautiful and blessed and all its fear pass away!"

"I felt so lonesome I most wished I was dead. The stars were shining, and the leaves rustled in the woods ever so mournful; and I heard an owl, away off, who-whooing about somebody that was dead, and a whippowill and a dog crying about somebody that was going to die; and the wind was trying to whisper something to me, and I couldn’t make out what it was, and so it made the cold shivers run over me."

"Come, drink the mystic wine of Night, Brimming with silence and the stars; While earth, bathed in this holy light, Is seen without its scars."

"It was then night; the sound and quiet sleep Had through the earth the wearied bodies caught; The woods, the raging seas were fallen to rest; When that the stars had half their course declined; The fields whist, beasts, and fowls of divers hue, And what so that in the broad lakes remained, Or yet among the bushy thicks of brier, Laid down to sleep by silence of the night 'Gan swage their cares, mindless of travails past."

"When, upon orchard and lane, breaks the white foam of the Spring When, in extravagant revel, the Dawn, a Bacchante upleaping, Spills, on the tresses of Night, vintages golden and red When, as a token at parting, munificent Day for remembrance, Gives, unto men that forget, Ophirs of fabulous ore."

"Press close bare-bosom'd night—press close magnetic nourishing night! Night of south winds—night of the large few stars! Still nodding night—mad naked summer night."

"Night begins to muffle up the day."

"Mysterious night! when our first parent knew Thee from report divine, and heard thy name, Did he not tremble for this lovely frame, This glorious canopy of light and blue?"

"The summer skies are darkly blue, The days are still and bright, And Evening trails her robes of gold Through the dim halls of Night."

"Though my soul may set in darkness, it will rise in perfect light, I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night."

"Melancholy were the sounds on a winter's night."

"On nights like this when the air is so clear, you end up saying things you ordinarily wouldn’t. Without even noticing what you’re doing, you open up your heart and just start talking to the person next to you—you talk as if you have no audience but the glittering stars, far overhead."

"Night, sable goddess! from her ebon throne, In rayless majesty, now stretches forth Her leaden sceptre o'er a slumbering world. Silence, how dead! and darkness, how profound! Nor eye, nor list'ning ear, an object finds; Creation sleeps. 'Tis as the general pulse Of life stood still, and nature made a pause; An awful pause! prophetic of her end."

"How is night's sable mantle labor'd o'er, How richly wrought with attributes divine! What wisdom shines! what love! this midnight pomp, This gorgeous arch, with golden worlds inlaid Built with divine ambition!"

"Mine is the night, with all her stars."

"Night is certainly more novel and less profane than day."