"A shaded lamp and a waving blind,

And the beat of a clock from a distant floor:

On this scene enter—winged, horned, and spined

— A longlegs, a moth, and a dumbledore;

While ‘mid my page there idly stands

A sleepy fly, that rubs its hands...

Thus meet we five, in this still place,

At this point of time, at this point in space.

— My guests besmear my new-penned line,

Or bang at the lamp and fall supine.

I muse. Yet why?

They know Earth-secrets that know not I.''

-- "An August Midnight,'' by Thomas Hardy