To Hans Christian Andersen (At A Summer-Fete For Him In Christiania, 1871)

(See Note 53)     We welcome you this wondrous summer-day,     When childhood's dreams on earth are streaming,     To bloom and sing, to brighten and to pale;          A fairy-tale,     A fairy-tale, our Northland all is seeming,     And holds you in its arms a festal space     With grateful glee and whisperings face to face.          Th' angelic noise,          Sweet strains of children's joys,     Bears you a moment to that home     Whence all our dreams, whence all our dreams have come.     We welcome you! Our nation all is young,     Still in that age of dreams enthralling,     When greatest things in fairy-tales are nursed,          And he is first,     And he is first, who hears his Lord's high calling.     Of childhood's longings you the meaning know,     And to the North a goal of greatness show.          Your fantasy          Has just that path made free,     Where, past the small things that you hate,     We yet shall find, we yet shall find the great.