Returning to Harbor after a visit to a gas giant:
"...the landscape...lay quietly in the evening, almost empty of man, a green fair breadth of land veined with bright rivers. The westering sun touched each leaf and grass blade with molten gold, an aureate glow which seemed to fill the cool air like a tangible presence, and I could hear the chirp and chatter of the great bird flocks as they settled down in the trees. Yes - it was good to get home." (p. 257)
"It was good to lie in the sun again, with a cool wet wind blowing in from the sea and talking in the trees." (p. 261)
This time the wind "talks." In which other work by Poul Anderson does the wind in the trees sound like speech in a strange language?
There is a case to be made for staying on Harbor and a case to be made for returning to space. Needless to say, some will go and some will stay.
The Traveler had been bound for Alpha Centauri and there would have met the colonists from the Pioneer.
2 comments:
Kipling wrote a poem, CHANT-PAGAN, about a soldier returned from the Boer war who just couldn't stand it at home any more:
Me that 'ave been what I've been -
Me that 'ave gone where I've gone -
Me that 'ave seen what I've seen -
'Ow can I ever take on
With awful old England again,
An' 'ouses both sides of the street,
And 'edges two sides of the lane,
And the parson an' gentry between,
An' touchin' my 'at when we meet -
Me that 'ave been what I've been?
Me that 'ave watched 'arf a world
'Eave up all shiny with dew,
Kopje on kop to the sun,
An' as soon as the mist let 'em through
Our 'elios winkin' like fun -
Three sides of a ninety-mile square,
Over valleys as big as a shire -
"Are ye there? Are ye there? Are ye there?"
An' then the blind drum of our fire . . .
An' I'm rollin' 'is lawns for the Squire,
Me!
Me that 'ave rode through the dark
Forty mile, often, on end,
Along the Ma'ollisberg Range,
With only the stars for my mark
An' only the night for my friend,
An' things runnin' off as you pass,
An' things jumpin' up in the grass,
An' the silence, the shine an' the size
Of the 'igh, unexpressible skies -
I am takin' some letters almost
As much as a mile to the post,
An' "mind you come back with the change!"
Me!
Me that saw Barberton took
When we dropped through the clouds on their 'ead,
An' they 'ove the guns over and fled -
Me that was through Di'mond 'Ill,
An' Pieters an' Springs an' Belfast -
From Dundee to Vereeniging all -
Me that stuck out to the last
(An' five bloomin' bars on my chest) -
I am doin' my Sunday-school best,
By the 'elp of the Squire an' 'is wife
(Not to mention the 'ousemaid an' cook),
To come in an' 'ands up an' be still,
An' honestly work for my bread,
My livin' in that state of life
To which it shall please God to call
Me!
Me that 'ave followed my trade
In the place where the Lightnin's are made;
"Twixt the Rains and the Sun and the Moon -
Me that lay down an' got up
Three years with the sky for my roof -
That 'ave ridden my 'unger an' thirst
Six thousand raw mile on the hoof,
With the Vaal and the Orange for cup,
An' the Brandwater Basin for dish, -
Oh! it's 'ard to be'ave as they wish
(Too 'ard, an' a little too soon),
I'll 'ave to think over it first -
Me!
I will arise an' get 'ence -
I will trek South and make sure
If it's only my fancy or not
That the sunshine of England is pale,
And the breezes of England are stale,
An' there's something' gone small with the lot.
For I know of a sun an' a wind,
An' some plains and a mountain be'ind,
An' some graves by a barb-wire fence,
An' a Dutchman I've fought 'oo might give
Me a job were I ever inclined
To look in an' offsaddle an' live
Where there's neither a road nor a tree -
But only my Maker an' me,
An I think it will kill me or cure,
So I think I will go there an' see.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Very good, this poem by Kipling. It brought to mind the old saw about "How are you going to keep them on the farm once they've seen Paree?"
If we ever get a true and new frontier off this rock I fully expect many restless and frustrated people to leave Earth for the same reasons as this soldier!
Ad astra! Sean
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