Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Heinemann Volume 3).djvu/80

 I have boldly dared to plan The refashioning of Man,— —There's my work,—Sin's image grown, Whom God moulded in His own.— Forth! to wider fields away! Here's no room for battle-play!

[Going; but pauses as he sees by the beach.]

See, she listens by the shore, As to airy songs afloat. So she listen'd in the boat As the stormy surge it tore,— Listening, to the thwart she clung,— Listening still, the sea-foam hoar From her open forehead flung. 'Tis as though her ear were changing Function, and her eye were listening.

[He approaches.]

Maiden, is it o'er those glistening Reaches that your eye is ranging?

[Without turning round.]

Neither those nor aught of earth; Nothing of them I descry. But a greater earth there gleams Sharply outlined on the sky, Foaming floods and spreading streams, Mists and sunshine breaking forth. Scarlet-shafted flames are playing Over cloud-capp'd mountain heads, And an endless desert spreads, Whereupon great palms are swaying In the bitter-breathing blast. Swart the shadows that they cast. Nowhere any living thing;