Living

How Calm, How Bland, Appears the Moon Above Us!

by Walter Savage Landor 1775–1864

From Works and Life, ed. Forster, vol. VIII (1876)

Living

How calm, how bland, appears the moon above us!
Surely there dwell the Spirits who most love us.
So think we, and gaze on: the well-pois'd glass
Suddenly bids the sweet illusion pass,
And tells us, bright as may be this outside,
Within are gulphs and desolation wide,
Craters extinct and barren rocks around,
And darkest depths no plummet-line could sound;
Then on the heart these jarring words descend . .
Man! hast thou never found such in a friend?

MLA

Landor, Walter Savage. “How Calm, How Bland, Appears the Moon Above Us!” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/landor/912/.

Chicago

Landor, Walter Savage. “How Calm, How Bland, Appears the Moon Above Us!” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/landor/912/.

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