Great Paper: "She" by H. Haggard ~ Angels of Dawn ~

Great Paper: “She” by H Rider Haggard

~ Angels of Dawn ~

1st person narrator and main protagonist of the story, “Holly” describes the aftermath of a wild sea storm that blew out of nowhere and blew their sailing vessel over sinking it along with most of its crew. Only Holly and a few fellow characters of the story survive the storm, managing to jump in a tiny dingy before the ship went under. They sit in the life boat floating into a delta as Holly silently  thinks about the ordeal they just survived. 

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“Round we went with the tide until we got well under the lee of the point, and suddenly the speed slackened, we ceased to make way, and finally appeared to be on dead water. The storm had entirely passed, leaving a clean washed sky behind it; the headline intercepted the heavy sea that had been occasioned by the squall, and the tide, which had been running so fiercely up the river(for we were now in the mouth of a river), was sluggish before it turned, so we floated quietly and before the moon went down managed to bail out the boat thoroughly and get her a little ship shape. Leo was sleeping, profoundly, and on the whole i thought it best not to wake him. It was true he was sleeping in wet clothes, but the night was so warm that i thought(and so did Job) That they were not likely to injure a man of his unusually vigorous constitution. Besides we had no dry ones at hand. Presently the moon went dow., and left us floating on the waters, now only heaving like some troubled woman's breast, with leisure to reflect upon all that we had gone through and all that we had escaped. Job had stationed himself at the bow. Mohammed kept his post at the tiller, and i sat up on a seat in the middle of the boat, close to where Leo was lying.

The moon went slowly down in chastened loveliness; she departed like some sweet bride into her chamber, and long veil like shadows crept up the sky through which the stars peeked slyly out. Soon however, they began to pale before the splendor in the east, and then the quivering footsteps down came rushing across the newborn blue , and shook the high-stars from their places. Quieter and yet, more quiet grew the sea. Quiet as the soft mist that brooded on her bosom, and covered up her troubling, as the illusive wreaths of sleep brood upon a pain racked mind, causing it to forget it’s sorrow.
And then,
From the East to the West, sped the angels of Dawn! From sea to sea, mountaintop to mountaintop scattering light with both their hand. On they sped out of the darkness. Perfect, Glorious, like spirits of saints breaking out of the night's tomb; on and over the quiet sea, over the low coastline, and the swamps beyond, and the mountains above them, over those who slept in peace and those who woke in sorrow: over the evil and the good; over the living and the dead; over the wide world and all that breathes, and has breathed thereon.

It was a wonderfully beautiful sight, and yet sad, perhaps. From the very excess of its beauty.The arising sun & the setting sun. Both the symbol and the type of humanity, and all things humanity has to do. The symbol and the type, yes, and the earthly beginning, and the end also. And on that morning came home to me with a peculiar force. The Sun that rose today for us, had set for eighteen of our companions. Had set everlastingly for eighteen whom we knew.
The dhow had gone down with their lives, and their bodies now most likely were all tossing about on the wide surface of the open ocean.
So much Human life set to drift on a great ocean of death, and now, only four of us remained.

But one day a sunrise will come when we shall be among those who are lost, and the others will watch those glorious rays and grow sad in the midst of beauty, and weep for Death even in the full glow of arising life.”