Lunar Lore

 Lunar Lore 

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 An old moon in a mist
Is worth gold in a kist [chest];
But a new moon’s mist
Will ne’er lack thirst.
  – Collected in R. Inwards, “Weather Lore”. 

… 

And were the moon forever full
and ne’er to wax or wane,
Man would not strain his watchful eyes
to see its gladsome round.

 – “The Arabian Nights” (Burton’s trans.)
…

Ye stars and moon, that, when the sun retires,
Support his empire with succeeding fires;
And thou, great Hecate, friend to my design;
Songs, mutt’ring spells, your magick forces join;
And thou, O Earth, the magazine that yields
The midnight sorcerer drugs; skies, mountains, fields;

 – Ovid, “Metamorphoses,” Dryden’s translation

…

The naked Moon, full-orbed antagonist
Of night and dark, night’s dowry: peak to base,
Upstarted mountains, and each valley, kissed
To sudden life, lay silver-bright: in air
Flew she revealed, Maid-Moon with limbs all bare.
            – Robert Browning, “Pan and Luna.”