Laudator Temporis Acti

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), "Night in June":

I left my dreary page and sallied forth,
Received the fair inscriptions of the night;
The moon was making amber of the world,
Glittered with silver every cottage pane,
The trees were rich, yet ominous with gloom.
                                 The meadows broad
From ferns and grapes and from the folded flowers
Sent a nocturnal fragrance; harlot flies
Flashed their small fires in air, or held their court
In fairy groves of herds-grass.

Cf. his Journals (June 10, 1838):

Last night at ten I left my dreamy journal & went abroad to receive the fair inscriptions of night. The moon was making amber of the world. Every cottage pane glittered into silver. The trees were beautiful yet ominous with gloom. The meadows sent up the rank smells of all their ferns & grasses & folded flowers into a nocturnal fragrance. The little harlot flies of the lowlands sparkled in the grass & in the air. It is all music.