“The night folded around them with a sweetness and poignancy heightened by the new pale stars that prickled silver fire in the water of the lily ponds, by the scented winds, and by the nearness of each other.”

“Her eyes hold the pale moon in them, the way a still pond holds stars.”

“Twas a still, calm night and the moon's pale lightShone over hill and daleWhen friends mute with grief stood around the deathbedOf their loved, lost Lily Lyle.Heart as pure as forest lilyNever knowing guile,Had its home within the bosomOf sweet Lily Lyle.”

“On a night of icy silver radiance, when the very sea and stars seemed on fire with light.”

“The flames sawed in the wind and the embers paled and deepened and paled and deepened like the bloodbeat of some living thing eviscerate upon the ground before them and they watched the fire which does contain within it something of men themselves inasmuch as they are less without it and are divided from their origins and are exiles. For each fire is all fires, and the first fire and the last ever to be.”

“... with the few small spots of light like golden stars in the night, the sweet stale scent of incense, and the warm smell of the burning wax. And she at rest within her own star.”