A Clean Sky

When mankind, except for a single aged individual, has evacuated Earth:

"Toward evening, the clouds lifted and the sky showed a clear pale blue - as if it had been washed clean - and the grass and leaves glistened. Kormt came out of the house to watch the sunset. It was a good one, all flame and gold."

-Poul Anderson, "The Chapter Ends" IN Anderson, Star Ship (New York, 1982), pp. 253-281 AT p. 278.

Andersonian pathetic fallacy:

when mankind has gone, the clouds of illusion lift?;

the sky is washed clean - that is explicit;

the renewed Earthly environment glistens appropriately;

the sunset of mankind on Earth but a suitably colourful one.

All the detail that action-oriented sf readers might miss.

Read everything at least twice.

Starward.