Slanting

We had left the fertile country behind and beneath us. We looked back on it now, the slanting rays of a low sun turning the streams to threads of gold and glowing on the red earth new turned by the plough and the broad tangle of the woodlands.

Then bid my comrades quit the port and shore, / and man the benches. They with rival strain / and slanting oar-blades sweep the levels of the main.

The slanting of the hill was too steep for safe skiing.