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