summer noon
Presently I saw a wood of tall slender pine-trees , and turned toward it . The odour of it met me on my way , and I made haste to bury myself in it . Plunged at length in its twilight glooms , I spied before me something with a shine , standing between two of the stems . It had no colour , but was like the translucent trembling of the hot air that rises , in a radiant summer noon , from the sun-baked ground , vibrant like the smitten chords of a musical instrument . What it was grew no plainer as I went nearer , and when I came close up , I ceased to see it , only the form and colour of the trees beyond seemed strangely uncertain . I would have passed between the stems , but received a slight shock , stumbled , and fell . When I rose , I saw before me the wooden wall of the garret chamber .