South Pacific Sunset II

Finding a memorable passage when rereading Poul Anderson's Mirkheim, I must check whether I have already posted about it and, sure enough, see "South Pacific Sunset," here.

However, I did not do full justice to this passage in that earlier post. After its first three sentences, ending with the reference to Venus, the opening paragraph continues:

"Beneath a lulling of waves, Ronga was wholly quiet. The day's odors of blossoms were fading away as air cooled."
-Poul Anderson, Mirkheim IN Anderson, Rise Of The Terran Empire (Riverdale, NY, 2011), pp. 1-291 AT p. 202.

In "South Pacific Sunset," my focus was on the sunset, thus on light and sky - including Venus - but I stopped there. The following two sentences, quoted above, add three more senses:

the sound of waves;
odors of blossoms;
cooling air.

In the second paragraph:

Chee Lan rides Adzel along a beach;
Adzel's scales shimmer;
Chee Lan's fur seems gilded;
palms glow against eastern violet;
David and Coya Falkayn, standing on the beach, look only at each other;
the team is about to leave Earth;
if they survive their mission to Hermes, Chee Lan intends to return to Cynthia "'For aye...'" (ibid.) and Adzel might return to Woden;
thus, the sunset is appropriate;
the beauty of Earth disturbs Chee Lan because she wants to be among "'...the living forests of Dao-Lai...'" (p. 203);
for Adzel, the sun is too dim and the horizons too narrow;
he shakes his head for no, a learned human gesture.

We cannot get enough of Anderson's descriptions but they seem to be endless, in any case. Like Chee Lan and Adzel, I approach the end of a day.