To the moon and back

Daylight and Moonlight

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

In broad daylight, and at noon,

Yesterday I saw the moon

Sailing high, but faint and white

As a schoolboy's paper kite.

In broad daylight, yesterday,

I read a Poet's mystic lay;

And it seemed to me at most

As a phantom, or a ghost.

But at length the feverish day

Like a passion died away,

And the night, serene and still

Fell on village, vale, and hill.

Then the moon, in all her pride,

Like a spirit glorified

Filled and overflowed the night

With revelations of her light

And the Poet's song again

Passed like music through my brain,

Night interpreted to me

All its grace and mystery

Image by Kathleen Kimball-Baker