Midnight
THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN . `` Dream by dream shot through her eyes , and each Outshone the last that lighted . '' SWINBURNE . Midnight , -- without darkness , without stars ! Midnight -- and the unwearied sun stood , yet visible in the heavens , like a victorious king throned on a dais of royal purple bordered with gold . The sky above him , -- his canopy , -- gleamed with a cold yet lustrous blue , while across it slowly flitted a few wandering clouds of palest amber , deepening , as they sailed along , to a tawny orange . A broad stream of light falling , as it were , from the centre of the magnificent orb , shot lengthwise across the Altenfjord , turning its waters to a mass of quivering and shifting color that alternated from bronze to copper , -- from copper to silver and azure .