nature's calm 



123 



The drama of the summer night fol- 

 lows, with times of Egyptian darkness, 

 when the woods are thick with a 

 blackness that overpowers reason itself. 

 The air is heavy with sleeplessness; 

 the earth teems with form, life, and 

 colour. The sky is subservient to this 

 beauty; the moon is a lamp to reveal 

 it, and shares its domain with the 

 lightning; for now we do not look so 

 much at the moon as at what the moon 

 shows us. 



The full-leaved trees make cavernous 

 shadows, and the meadows, silvered 

 with dew, seem like enchanted lakes. 

 Every strip of woods becomes a Black 

 Forest, the tall grass and brakes are 

 jungles, the cat crouching through them 

 a tiger, and the bats soaring witches. 

 The lane seems endless, the trimmed 

 hemlocks solidify into a fortress, the 

 pool where the birds bathe looks bot- 



