Poet's Choice

And after foolish fires do stray;

Your courteous lights in vain you waste,

Since Juliana here is come,

For she my mind hath so displaced

That I shall never find my home.

The predominant emotion of this poem is wonder, not love. The compliment to Juliana at the end is just that: a compliment, a flattering gift card accompanying the sweet-box or floral arrangement of his graceful marveling at the glowworms. Sweets to the sweet, or, in this case, wonders to the wonderful.

A poem more candidly of wonder -- also in response to an unusual natural light, also urbane and learned, and also with a personal component -- is in Imago Mundi , a recent book by the American poet Michelle Mitchell-Foust:

Us in the Dark Wandering Home

Falcarragh, Ireland

For Kevin and Pam

I found the Aristotle paraphrases

of Albertus Magnus, and the milky way

was certainly full of stars. I couldn't stop