An infinite dome of sky was expanded above us

an ocean of firmament of which the dwellers among

houses and mountains can have but little conception.

The troops of glittering stars,

the dark, the shrouding night,

the unaccustomed voices of my companions,

deepened the awe that oppressed me, and,

as I stood between them, I became as earnest

and occupied as themselves.

I forgot everything but the incomprehensible grandeur

of the universe revealed to me,

and the majestic sweep of planets

across the field of the telescope.

What a freshness of awe and delight came over me!

What floods of thought came,

wave upon wave, across my mind!

And how insignificant I felt

before this wilderness of worlds!

• Hesba Stretton – The Ghosts in the Clock Room in Charles Dickens’ tale ‘The Haunted House’.

————————————–Photo by Greg Rakozy