As the moon rises, Longfellow’s speaker imagines it as a pale phantom ascending a ruin’s haunted stair. It glides through damp air, now hidden by clouds, now revealed, as if in pain. Then the moon emerges serene and proud, an empress of the night. Under this light, everything changes: the path home turns into an enchanted avenue, elm trees like curtains, the street paved with glimmering marble. He walks in a foreign town, the ground charged with a divine air, but then he checks himself—it’s illusion. The everyday world lies unchanged beneath; only the spirit paints the sober gray with its own bright tints. In the end, he understands: we see only what we have the gift of seeing. What we bring, we find. The mood moves from eerie fantasy and majestic wonder to a quiet, humbling revelation.
Moonlight — Summary
As a pale phantom with a lamp Ascends some ruin's haunted stair, So glides the moon along the damp Mysterious chambers of the air.
Now hidden in cloud, and now revealed, As if this phantom, full of pain, Were by the crumbling walls concealed, And at the windows seen again.
Until at last, serene and proud In all the splendor of her light, She walks the terraces of cloud, Supreme as Empress of the Night.
I look, but recognize no more Objects familiar to my view; The very pathway to my door Is an enchanted avenue.
All things are changed. One mass of shade, The elm-trees drop their curtains down; By palace, park, and colonnade I walk as in a foreign town.
The very ground beneath my feet Is clothed with a diviner air; While marble paves the silent street And glimmers in the empty square.
Illusion! Underneath there lies The common life of every day; Only the spirit glorifies With its own tints the sober gray.
In vain we look, in vain uplift Our eyes to heaven, if we are blind; We see but what we have the gift Of seeing; what we bring we find.