Beauty and awe

Years ago I noted the following poem about an eclipse.

On the Eclipse of the Moon of October 1865

Charles Turner

One little noise of life remained--I heard

The train pause in the distance, then rush by,

Brawling and hushing, like some busy fly

That murmurs and then settles; nothing stirred

Beside. The shadow of our traveling earth

Hung on the silver moon, which mutely went

Through that grand process, without token sent,

Or any sign to call a gazer forth,

Had I not chanced to see; dumb was the vault

Of heaven, and dumb the fields--no zephyr swept

The forest walks, or through the coppice crept;

Nor other sound the stillness did assault,

Save that faint-brawling railway's move and halt;

So perfect was the silence Nature kept.

Turner was a British poet (older brother of Alfred Lord Tennyson) writing of an actual event.  

There was, yesterday, April 8th, a total eclipse of the sun across the eastern US in the midafternoon from Texas northeast towards Maine.  The totality was about a hundred mile wide.  Atlanta was a couple hundred miles south of the totality but still attained about 80-85% occlusion.  

The astonishing thing is that, even at 85% coverage by the moon, the illuminating power of the sun is so great that without prior knowledge, one might have not known of the event at all.  There was a dimming of the light for a quarter hour but no greater than that which occurs when the sun is blotted out by a heavy cloud on a summer day.  

The newspapers and radio and internet were alive with reports in anticipation and during the occurrence, but outside the path of totality, there would likely have been little or no comment in days gone by.  Without the clamoring media and connected conversations, there would have been no "token sent,

Or any sign to call a gazer forth."  

But as it was, I knew it was coming and was prepared for the peak event at 3:04 pm.

There is a phenomenon during eclipses which occurs in areas which are well treed as is Atlanta.  The canopy of trees, with the tiny spaces between leaves, function as a massive pinhole camera allowing you to see the image of the eclipse on the ground.  It is in its manner both beautiful and miraculous.  With the added benefit that one does not risk losing one's sight gazing upon the image.

The sliver of eclipsed sun was dappled everywhere, as on the columns of the front porch.

Scattered across the driveway.

Spilled as shards of silver on the sidewalk.

Even on the kitchen floor.

A wondrous world of beauty and awe when we pay attention.