noon
Thus as I strode on into the unknown I experienced an exhilarating sense of high adventure unknown till now . It was a night of brooding stillness and the moon , high-risen , touched the world about me with her magic , whereby things familiar became transformed into objects of wonder ; tree and hedgerow took on shapes strange and fantastic ; the road became a gleaming causeway whereon I walked , godlike , master of my destiny . Beyond meadow and cornfield to right and left gloomed woods , remote and full of mystery , in whose enchanted twilight elves and fairies might have danced or slender dryads peeped and sported . Thus walked I in an ecstasy , scanning with eager eyes the novel beauties around me , my mind full of the poetic imaginations conjured up by the magic of this midsummer night , so that I yearned to paint it , or set it to music , or write it into adequate words ; and knowing this beyond me , I fell to repeating Milton 's noble verses the while : `` I walk unseen On the dry smooth-shaven green , To behold the wand ` ring moon Riding near her highest noon , Like one that had been led astray Through the heaven 's wide pathless way . '' After some while I espied a stile upon my right and climbing this , I crossed a broad meadow to a small , rustic bridge spanning a stream that flowed murmurous in the shade of alder and willow . Being upon this bridge , I paused to look down upon these rippling waters and to watch their flash and sparkle where the moon caught them . And hearkening to the melodious voice of this streamlet , I began to understand how great poems were written and books happened .