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sweet argent archery upon two bodies stretched out side by side, with smiles upon their lips and faces, and with a lingering trace of the sureness of heaven in their open but unseeing eyes.
Great was the storm, and mighty the power that had shown itself to all in the fury of the elements; yet was there revealed that night a power which, though manifest only to the two who were found so cold and silent, did in greatness surpass all the tempestuous forces so vividly displayed: even as the glory of Heaven surpasseth the splendour of earth. There is more power in the smallest thought of God or Good than there can ever be in the whole wide universe we see; even were all the various forces of that universe to be miraculously joined for a single purpose.
Respite
Through well-kept arbours fruitlessly I stray'd
In quest of respite from the causeless woes
That throng the weary spirit, and invade
The mind too seldom dreamless with repose.
Not neat-hedg'd path, nor garden's radiant grace.
Nor crystal fountain playing o'er the green,
Could cheer my heart, or from my soul efface
The tragedy of things that might have been.
The orchard boughs, bedeck'd with flow'rs of spring,
The verdant lawns, with skilful labour shorn.
To me no joy nor grateful thrill could bring;
In tears I came, and linger'd but to mourn.
One day, in idleness, ray footsteps found
The weed-chok'd slope that leads to sylvan deeps
Where leafy carpets clotheth untrodden ground,
And Nature, unadorn'd, her palace keeps.
'Twas there, in regions to mankind unknown.
Where swamp and brake benignant spirits hide,
I stood at last, with Nature's God alone,
And gain'd the respite that the world deny'd.
H.P. Lovecraft
By the Waters of the Brook
Where waters slip like liquid lightning over polish'd stones,
Swift darting, glinting, flashing--shooting back the golden rays
Of dazzling sun; whore one can hear the deep-voic'd undertones
Of diapason, and the overtones of crystal lays
Which sing through wooded canyon halls: there, free from toil and care,
In sweet abandon, loves my soul with Nature to commune;
