Page "Against the Fall of Night" Paragraph 1

The title is from the poem " Smooth between sea and land " by Alfred Edward Housman, published in More poems.

Clarke explains: " I was also to discover the lines of A. E. Housman that not only described the locale perfectly, but also gave me the title of my first novel: “ Here on the level sand, between the sea and land, what shall I do or write against the fall of night ?”".

Clarke would also quote Housman in 3001: The Final Odyssey.