*
I saw eternity the other night
Like a great Ring of pure and endless light…
                          —Henry Vaughan, The World

I saw reality the other night,
By New England moon-light.

All of my life, living had been
One or another kind of dream.

Now, nothing festooned itself between
Me and the substance of moon-beam.

The land is honest, small and swept
Bare as a barn-yard floor

In winter. And no third thing crept
As it had, times before.

No feeling, its mist to intervene,
No inner thought to warp…

I stood: and behold, the trees were lean,
And lo! the hills were sharp.

Moon’s no ephemeral faint stuff
First seen, painted upon

Windows and walls—it is yellow as dawn,
After dream, it is marvelous rough,

Coarse as hoar-frost—texture no dream
Can invent.
                   Cut my vague dreams away!

Moon in New England, O pure moon-beam,

Let it be day.