Whom Sylphs, if e'er for casual pastime they O sovereign Nature! I appeal to thee, Is so unearthly, and what shape so fair? So richly decked in variegated down, Green, sable, shining yellow, shadowy brown, Hues doubtfully begun and ended; Or intershooting, and to sight Lost and recovered, as the rays of light Glance on the conscious plumes touched here and there ? Full surely, when with such proud gifts of life O'erweening Art was caught as in a snare. A sense of seemingly presumptuous wrong That in the living Creature find on earth a place. L. A JEWISH FAMILY. (IN A SMALL VALLEY OPPOSITE ST. GOAR, UPON THE RHINE). [COLERIDGE, my daughter, and I, in 1828, passed a fortnight upon the banks of the Rhine, principally under the hospitable roof of Mr. Aders of Gotesburg, but two days of the time we spent at St. Goar in rambles among the neighbouring valleys. It was at St. Goar that I saw the Jewish family here described. Though exceedingly poor, and in rags, they were not less beautiful than I have endeavoured to make them appear. We had taken a little dinner with us in a basket, and invited them to partake of it, which the mother refused to do, both for herself and children, saying it was with them a fast-day; adding, diffidently, that whether such observances were right or wrong, she felt it her duty to keep them strictly. The Jews, who are numerous on this part of the Rhine, greatly surpass the German peasantry in the beauty of their features and in the intelligence of their countenances. But the lower classes of the German peasantry have, here at least, the air of people grievously opprest. Nursing mothers, at the age of seven or eight and twenty, often look haggard and far more decayed and withered than women of Cumberland and Westmoreland twice their age. This comes from being under-fed and overworked in their vineyards in a hot and glaring sun.] GENIUS of Raphael! if thy wings Might bear thee to this glen, With faithful memory left of things To pencil dear and pen, Thou would'st forego the neighbouring Rhine, A studious forehead to incline O'er this poor family. The Mother-her thou must have seen, To dwell these rifted rocks between, An image, too, of that sweet Boy, Of playfulness, and love, and joy, Downcast, or shooting glances far, I see the dark-brown curls, the brow, The holiness within; By blushes yet untamed; Two lovely Sisters, still and sweet Such beauty hath the Eternal poured Though of a lineage once abhorred, Mysterious safeguard, that, in spite Doth here preserve a living light, Of Palestine, of glory past, 1828. LI. ON THE POWER OF SOUND. WRITTEN at Rydal Mount. I have often regretted that my tour in Ireland, chiefly performed in the short days of October in a Carriage-and-four (I was with Mr. Marshall) supplied my memory with so few images that were new, and with so little motive to write. The lines however in this poem, "Thou too be heard, lone eagle !" were suggested near the Giants' Causeway, or rather at the promontory of Fairhead, where a pair of eagles wheeled above our heads and darted off as if to hide themselves in a blaze of sky made by the setting sun. n.] ARGUMENT. The Ear addressed, as occupied by a spiritual functionary, in communion with sounds, individual, or combined in studied harmony.-Sources and effects of those sounds (to the close of 6th Stanza).-The power of music, whence proceeding, exemplified in the idiot.-Origin of music, and its effect in early ages-how produced (to the middle of 10th Stanza).-The mind recalled to sounds acting casually and severally. -Wish uttered (11th Stanza) that these could be united into a scheme or system for moral interests and intellectual contemplation.-(Stanza 12th). The Pythagorean theory of numbers and music, with their supposed power over the motions of the universe-imaginations consonant with such a theory.-Wish expressed (in 11th Stanza) realised, in some degree, by the representation of all sounds under the form of thanksgiving to the Creator.-(Last Stanza) the destruction of earth and the planetary system-the survival of audible harmony, and its support in the Divine Nature, as revealed in Holy Writ. I. THY functions are ethereal, As if within thee dwelt a glancing mind, Informs the cell of Hearing, dark and blind; Strict passage, through which sighs are brought, And shrieks, that revel in abuse Of shivering flesh; and warbled air, Hosannas pealing down the long-drawn aisle, II. The headlong streams and fountains Serve Thee, invisible Spirit, with untired powers; That bleat, how tender! of the dam |