Night Crossing reflects on the passage from life to death, and the view of this in Greek mythology as a journey across the river Acheron in the boat of the ferryman Charon:

"And see, an old man, with white hoary locks, came towards us in a boat shouting: 'Woe to you, wicked spirits! Never hope to see heaven: I come to carry you to the other shore, into eternal darkness, into fire and ice'… …the memory of my terror still drenches me with sweat. The weeping earth gave vent, and flashed with crimson light, overpowering my senses, and I fell, like a man overcome by sleep"