The correct answer is:
"Psalm" suggests that the passage of time cannot defeat the soul, while "Auspex" indicates that it can.
"A Psalm of Life", usually subtitled "What the Heart of the Young Man Said to the Psalmist", is a poem composed by American writer Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) was an American poet and diplomat.
They both were part of the Fireside Poets, a group of New England writers among the first American poets who competed with British poets.
I believe the correct answer is to help the reader visualize a view where water and sky are difficult to tell apart.
The author is trying to portray an image where the water and the sky are somehow blending into each other - you can't tell where one ends and the other one begins, because both items are colored similarly - various shades of blue.