The view of the earth, at this period of my ascension, was beautiful indeed. To the westward, the northward, and the southward, as far as I could see, lay a boundless sheet of apparently unruffled ocean, which every moment gained a deeper and a deeper tint of blue and began already to assume a slight appearance of convexity. At a vast distance to the eastward, although perfectly discernible, extended the islands of Great Britain, the entire Atlantic coasts of France and Spain, with a small portion of the northern part of the continent of Africa. Of individual edifices not a trace could be discovered, and the proudest cities of mankind had utterly faded away from the face of the earth.
Edgar Allen Poe: The Unparalleled Adventures of One, Hans Pfall
Painting: Johannes Vermeer, The Geographer (1668)
Beautiful piece of description. I love Poe but I hadn't read that before. I will have to go and ferret that story out. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI'm not a Poe fan, but I'll admit, I was taken with that excerpt.
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