From Aalesund at midnight northward seen Clear purple promontories fade in grey; On Aalesund lies long the unearthly sheen Of evening mixt with morning, day with day. Ah, friend, beneath that heaven-high vault serene What isles unnamed in gulfs unvoyaged lay! How desolately calm those capes between The slow wave swept the unending winding way! Thence gazing awestruck in that pause of Fate, My years, far from her, vision-like I viewed; Unearthly calms, and hopes that wane and wait, Life with one cold unchanging gleam imbued; ''" Far firths of Sorrow spread disconsolate. And Joy's low islets lit in solitude. |