MOONRISE IN THE ELSTER TANNEN-WALD

Darker than midnight, to the midnight sky

Rises the valley-ridge with all its pines.

Above that gloom a growing radiance shines,

Where the full moon floats up invisibly.

Now, half-revealed, she lifts her disk on high,

When on it, lo! in black and spectral lines

One blasted tree so wild a form designs,

That fear and wonder hold the watcher's eye.

The minutes pass — and nothing looks the same,

But tangled in a web of silver light

Lies the great forest, dreaming and at rest.

Yet deep in memory's core abides that sight

One moment outlined on the mountain crest —

A Shape that writhed upon a pool of flame.