the lovely moon

“It was the lovely moon—she lifted
slowly her white brow among
Bronze cloud-waves that ebbed and drifted
Faintly, faintlier afar.”

—John Freeman, It Was the Lovely Moon, Stone Trees, 1916.

the starry dynamo

“angleheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of the night.”

—Allen Ginsberg, Howl, 1956.

Colour and Warmth and Light

“And Life is Colour and Warmth and Light
And a striving evermore for these;”

—Julian Grenfell, Into Battle, 1915.

the Yellow God

“There’s a one-eyed yellow idol to the north of Khatmandu,
There’s a little marble cross below the town,
There’s a broken-hearted woman tends the grave of Mad Carew,
And the Yellow God forever gazes down.”

—J. Milton Hayes, The Green Eye of the Yellow God, 1911.

I stared into the sky

“I stood upon that silent hill
And stared into the sky until
My eyes were blind with stars and still
I stared into the sky.”

—Ralph Hodgson, Song of Honour, Poems, 1917.

A True-blue Rebel

“I will die like a true-blue rebel. Don’t waste any time in mourning—organize.”

—Joe Hill, November 18, 1915, a farewell telegram the day before his execution by firing squad.

Pale hands, pink tipped

“Pale hands, pink tipped, like lotus buds that float
On those cool waters where we used to dwell,
I would have rather felt you round my throat
Crushing out life; than waving me farewell!”

—Laurence Hope, Kashmiri Song, Garden of Kama, 1901.

sexophones

“The sexophones wailed like melodious cats under the moon.”

—Aldous Huxley, Brave New World, 1932.

the sun

“Mother, give me the sun.”

—Henrik Ibsen, Ghosts, 1881.

the carbon atom

“Life exits in the universe only because the carbon atom possesses certain exceptional properties.”

—Sir James Jeans, Mysterious Universe, 1930.