landscape piece

''and once i walked through a golden valley that led to shadowy groves and ruins, and ended in a mighty wall green with antique vines, and pierced by a little gate of bronze. many times i walked through that valley, and longer and longer would i pause in the spectral half-light where the giant trees squirmed and twisted grotesquely, and the grey ground stretched damply from trunk to trunk, sometimes disclosing the mould-stained stones of buried temples. and always the goal of my fancies was the mighty vine-grown wall with the little gate of bronze therein. ... and as i looked upon the little gate in the mighty wall, i felt that beyond it lay a dream-country from which, once it was entered, there would be no return. so each night in sleep i strove to find the hidden latch of the gate in the ivied wall, though it was exceedingly well hidden. and i would tell myself that the realm beyond the wall was not more lasting merely, but more lovely and radiant as well.''

h.p.lovecraft, ex oblivione.