Storm-clouds whirl and storm-clouds scurry;
From behind them pale moonlight
Flickers where the snowflakes hurry.
Dark the sky and dark the night. Alexander Pushkin, Devils, 1830
A Long Day’s Journey Into Night. Eugene O’Neill, title of play
I’m off now in search of the denizen of darkness. ‘Being a night watchman, it’s amazing the thoughts that pass through your mind here alone in the factory at night. Sometimes I think the factory is like a huge ship, a great golden ship, rushing through the night. And I inside in safety.’ Night on Film: An A-Z of the Dark, BBC 2011
‘I like to shoot pictures at night time and dusk because I think they have much more impact.’ ibid. Don McCullin
The Knocker Upper: the early morning. It’s gone colder. Already the knocker-up is moving briskly down the streets rattling on the windows of his sleeping customers. I asked him why the knocker-upper still flourished. After all I said there are plenty of alarm clocks. ibid. black and white film
The night of the Harvest moon: the fat silver moon that shines on the golden fields of September. ibid. black and white film
Night Shift: For more than two million people in this country night work is a matter of necessity. In steel towns like Sheffield and Rotherham there is a century old tradition of working round the clock ... That it’s night work that pays the rent, and indeed a little bit left over for the higher purchase on the television ... How to turn your life upside down with no ill effects. ibid. black and white film
The wind is whistling through the tree tops
I hear the hooting of an owl high up in the tree tops
It is dark and gloomy out at night,
It is dull and black and scary. ibid. child author
Phantoms: A very ordinary looking council house. But don’t be deceived. When night falls and the moon is bright this place takes on an evil air. It’s inhabited by a lady in white, a nun, and a tall man in a black cape with a gold choker. ibid. man parades street at night, black and white film
The lights blaze and dance
A city with her make up on,
And in the side streets that criss-cross their devious ways behind the arteries of light,
And in the allies where the lamps are low
The clubs and the easy money joints
The fashionable night spots
... The all night cafés and the nude shows – Soho. ibid. Black & white film
Watchman, what of the night? Watchman, what of the night? Isaiah 21:11
Lo! We revealed it on the Night of Predestination.
Ah, what will convey unto thee what the Night of Power is!
The Night of Power is better than a thousand months.
The angels and the Spirit descend therein, by the permission of their Lord, with all decrees.
(The night is) Peace until the rising of the dawn. Koran 97:1-5
Where eldest Night
And Chaos, ancestors of nature, hold
Eternal anarchy, amidst the noise
Of endless wars, and by confusion stand. John Milton, Paradise Lost II:894
Sweet the coming on
Of grateful evening mild, then silent night
With this her solemn bird and this fair moon,
And these the gems of heaven, her starry train. ibid.
For now began
Night with her sullen wings to double-shade
The desert; fowls in their clay nests were couch’d,
And now wild beasts came forth, the woods to roam. John Milton, Paradise Regained I:499
Darkness now rose,
As daylight sunk, and brought in low’ring Night
Her shadowy offspring. ibid. IV:397
O thievish Night,
Why shouldst thou, but for some felonious end,
In thy dark lantern thus close up the stars,
That nature hung in heaven, and filled their lamps
With everlasting oil, to give due light
To the misled and lonely traveller? John Milton, Comus l195
What hath night to do with sleep? ibid. l313
How beautiful this night! the balmiest sigh
Which Vernal Zephyrs breathe in evening’s ear
Were discord to the speaking quietude
That wraps this moveless scene. Heaven’s ebon vault,
Studded with stars, unutterably bright,
Through which the moon’s unclouded grandeur rolls,
Seems like a canopy which love has spread
To curtain her sleeping world. Percy Bysshe Shelley, Queen Mab
Now deep in ocean sunk the lamp of light,
And drew behind the cloudy vale of night. Homer, The Iliad
How beautiful is night!
A dewy freshness fills the silent air;
No mist obscures, nor cloud nor speck nor stain
Breaks the serene of heaven. Robert Southey, Thalaba
We like to think we live in daylight, but half the world is always dark; and fantasy, like poetry, speaks the language of the night. Ursula K le Guin
What hath night to do with sleep? John Milton
It’s gonna be a good night, bro … Tonight is your night, bro. Twins 1988 starring Arnold Schwarzenegger & Danny DeVito & Kelly Preston & Chloe Webb & Bonnie Bartlett & David Caruso & Trey Wilson & Marvin J McIntyre & Marshall Bell & Tony Jay et al, director Ivan Reitman, deVito
By that time night had eliminated most of the landscape and as I followed the narrow winding highway, a series of short posts, ghostly white, with reflectors, borrowed my own lights to indicate this or that curve. I could make out a dark valley on one side of the road and wooded slopes on the other, and in front of me, like derelict snowflakes, moths drifted out of the blackness into my probing aura. Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita
For brothers Shoaib and Rasheed darkness brings danger. Every night they are imprisoned in their own bodies. They are frozen in a state of paralysis. A case so unique doctors suspected these were bogus claims. Seemingly medical marvels the body have become headline news. Moonstruck: Extraordinary Coma Boys aka Frozen: From Dusk Till Dawn, Channel 5 2018
An extraordinary condition … As the sun goes down Shoaib and Rashid’s strength and energy gradually deteriorates … The brothers are utterly helpless, unable to move … It’s like the paralysis of the previous night never happened. ibid.
The solar kids became a national phenomenon. ibid.
As evening approaches, their muscles start to weaken. ibid.
The night is hot as hell. It’s a lousy room in a lousy part of a lousy town. I’m staring at a goddess. She’s telling me she wants me. Sin City 2005 starring Jessica Alba & Mickey Rourke & Brittany Murphy & Clive Owen & Bruce Willis & Elijah Wood & Rutger Hauer & Makenzie Vega & Devon Aoki & Alexis Bledel & Powers Boothe & Rosario Dawson & Benicio del Toro & Michael Clarke Duncan & Rick Gomez & Carla Gugino et al, director Miller & Rodriguez & Tarantino, The Hard Goodbye