"I was led into these thoughts, my dear Reynolds, by the beauty of the morning operating on a sense of idleness. I have not read any booksthe morning said I was right. I had no idea but of the morning, and the thrush said I was right, seeming to say-(Letter to Reynolds, Feb., 1818)
THOU whose face hath felt the Winter's wind,
Whose eye has seen the snow-clouds hung in mist And the black elm tops 'mong the freezing stars! To thee the spring will be a harvest time. O thou whose only book has been the light Of supreme darkness, which thou feddest on Night after night, when Phoebus was away! To thee the Spring shall be a triple morn. O fret not after knowledge. I have none, And yet my song comes native with the warmth. O fret not after knowledge! I have none, And yet the evening listens. He who saddens At thought of idleness cannot be idle, And he's awake who thinks himself asleep."
HERE'S the Poet? show him! show him, Muses nine! that I may know him.
'Tis the man who with a man
Is an equal, be he King,
Or poorest of the beggar-clan,
Or any other wondrous thing
A man may be 'twixt ape and Plato; 'Tis the man who with a bird, Wren, or Eagle, finds his way to All its instincts; he hath heard The Lion's roaring, and can tell What his horny throat expresseth, And to him the Tiger's yell Comes articulate and presseth On his ear like mother-tongue.
ND what is Love? It is a doll, dress'd up For idleness to cosset, nurse, and dandle; A thing of soft misnomers, so divine That silly youth doth think to make itself Divine by loving, and so goes on Yawning and doting a whole summer long, Till Miss's comb is made a pearl tiara, And common Wellingtons turn Romeo boots; Then Cleopatra lives at number seven,
And Antony resides in Brunswick Square.
Fools! if some passions high have warm'd the world, If Queens and Soldiers have play'd deep for hearts, It is no reason why such agonies
Should be more common than the growth of weeds. Fools! make me whole again that weighty pearl The Queen of Egypt melted, and I'll say That ye may love in spite of beaver hats.
FRAGMENT OF THE "CASTLE BUILDER."
O-NIGHT I'll have my friar-let me think
About my room,— I'll have it in the pink; It should be rich and sombre, and the moon, Just in its mid-life in the midst of June, Should look thro' four large windows, and display Clear, but for gold-fish vases in the way, Their glassy diamonding on Turkish floor; The tapers keep aside, an hour and more, To see what else the moon alone can show; While the night-breeze doth softly let us know My terrace is well-bower'd with oranges. Upon the floor the dullest spirit sees A guitar-ribbon and a lady's glove Beside a crumpled-leaved tale of love;
A tambour-frame, with Venus sleeping there, All finish'd but some ringlets of her hair; A viol, bow-strings torn, cross-wise upon A glorious folio of Anacreon;
A skull upon a mat of roses lying, Ink'd purple with a song concerning dying; An hour-glass on the turn, amid the trails Of passion-flower;—just in time there sails A cloud across the moon,-the lights bring in, And see what more my phantasy can win. It is a gorgeous room, but somewhat sad; The draperies are so, as tho' they had Been made for Cleopatra's winding-sheet:
And opposite the steadfast eye doth meet A spacious looking-glass, upon whose face, In letters raven-sombre, you may trace Old "Mene, Mene, Tekel Upharsin." Greek busts and statuary have ever been Held, by the finest spirits, fitter far Than vase grotesque and Siamesian jar; Therefore 'tis sure a want of Attic taste That I should rather love a Gothic waste Of eyesight on cinque-coloured potter's clay, Than on the marble fairness of old Greece. My table-coverlits of Jason's fleece
And black Numidian sheep-wool should be wrought, Gold, black, and heavy, from the Lama brought. My ebon sofas should delicious be
With down from Leda's cygnet progeny. My pictures all Salvator's, save a few
Of Titian's portraiture, and one, though new, Of Haydon's in its fresh magnificence. My wine- oh good! 'tis here at my desire, And I must sit to supper with my friar.
Of each his faction, they to battle bring Their embryo atoms."-MILTON.
ELCOME joy, and welcome sorrow,
Lethe's weed and Herme's feather;
Come to-day and come to-morrow,
I do love you both together!
I love to mark sad faces in fair weather; And hear a merry laugh amid the thunder;
Fair and foul I love together: Meadows sweet where flames are under,
And a giggle at a wonder;
Visage sage at pantomime;
Funeral, and steeple-chime;
Infant playing with a skull;
Morning fair, and shipwreck'd hull;
Nightshade with the woodbine kissing; Serpents in red roses hissing;
Cleopatra regal-dress'd
With the aspic at her breast; Dancing music, music sad, Both together, sane and mad; Muses bright and muses pale; Sombre Saturn, Momus hale;- Laugh and sigh, and laugh again; Oh! the sweetness of the pain! Muses bright and muses pale, Bare your faces of the veil; Let me see; and let me write
Of the day and of the night- Both together:-let me slake
All my thirst for sweet heart-ache; Let my bower be of yew,
Interwreath'd with myrtles new; Pines and lime trees full in bloom, And my couch a low grass-tomb.
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