Moonlight
- mrymntcpw
- Sep 7
- 2 min read
Updated: Sep 12
How does one capture the beauty and essence of moonlight?
I offer three answers: 1) a photo by Diane Elizabeth, photographer; 2) a poem by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu; and 3) a song for voice and piano by Claude Debussy, composer, on a text by Paul Verlaine, poet; as performed by Arleen Auger, soprano; and Katja Phillabaum, pianist.
Thou silver deity of secret night,
Direct my footsteps through the woodland shade;
Thou conscious witness of unknown delight,
The Lover's guardian, and the Muse's aid!
By thy pale beams I solitary rove,
To thee my tender grief confide;
Serenely sweet you gild the silent grove,
My friend, my goddess, and my guide.
E'en thee, fair queen, from thy amazing height,
The charms of young Endymion drew;
Veil'd with the mantle of concealing night;
With all thy greatness and thy coldness too.
       -Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
Clair de lune
Claude Debussy, composer
French source:Â Paul Verlaine
Moonlight
English translation © Richard Stokes
Your soul is a chosen landscape
bewitched by masquers and bergamaskers,
playing the lute and dancing and almost
sad beneath their fanciful disguises.
Singing as they go in a minor key
of conquering love and life’s favours,
they do not seem to believe in their fortune
and their song mingles with the light of the moon,
The calm light of the moon, sad and fair,
that sets the birds dreaming in the trees
and the fountains sobbing in their rapture,
tall and svelte amid marble statues.
Translation © Richard Stokes, author of A French Song Companion (Oxford, 2000)
Performance:
CPW
P.S. On 9/7/25, the Moon will be in a full moon phase meaning it will be 100% illuminated as seen from Earth. Moonrise tonight at Merry Mount is scheduled for 7:57 pm.