Informs the fountain in the human breast 1834. XLI. THE FOREGOING SUBJECT RESUMED. AMONG a grave fraternity of Monks, Assigned to it in future worlds. Thou, too, Though but a simple object, into light Called forth by those affections that endear The private hearth; though keeping thy sole seat * The pilo of buildings, composing the palace and convent of San Lorenzo, has, in common usage, lost its proper name in that of the Escurial, a village at the foot of the hill upon which the splendid edifice, built by Philip the Second, stands. It need scarcely be added, that Wilkie is the painter alluded to. With a congenial function art endued Or sacred wonder, growing with the power In faithful scales, things and their opposites, A household small and sensitive, whose love, On earth, will be revived, we trust, in heaven.* 1834. XLII. So fair, so sweet, withal so sensitive, Would that the little Flowers were born to live, That to this mountain-daisy's self were known * In the class entitled "Musings," in Mr. Southey's Minor Poems, is one upon his own miniature Picture, taken in childhood, and another upon a landscape painted by Gaspar Poussin. It is possible that every word of the above verscs, though similar in subject, might have been written had the author been unacquainted with those beautiful effusions of poetic sentiment. But, for his own satisfaction, he must be allowed thus publicly to acknowledge the pleasure those two Poems of his Friend have given him, and the grateful influence they have upon his mind as often as he reads them, or thinks of them. And what if hence a bold desire should mount So might he ken how by his sovereign aid And were the Sister-power that shines by night Fond fancies! wheresoe'er shall turn thine eye All vain desires, all lawless wishes quelled, XLIII. UPON SEEING A COLOURED DRAWING OF THE BIRD OF PARADISE IN AN ALBUM. [I CANNOT forbear to record that the last seven lines of this Poem were composed in bed during the night of the day on which my sister Sara Hutchinson died about 6 P.M., and it was the thought of her innocent and beautiful life that, through faith, prompted the words— "On wings that fear no glance of God's pure sight, The reader will find two poems on pictures of this bird among has, as in this case, grown out of another, either because I felt the subject had been inadequately treated, or that the thoughts and images suggested in course of composition have been such as I found interfered with the unity indispensable to every work of art, however humble in character.] WHо rashly strove thy Image to portray ? In all her brightness, from the dancing crest Or in the diver's grasp fetched up from caves Perhaps for touch profane, Plumes that might catch, but cannot keep, a stain; A holy name-the Bird of Heaven! And even a title higher still, The Bird of God! whose blessed will Over the earth and through the skies Region that crowns her beauty with the name How happy at all seasons, could like aim Above a world that deems itself most wise When most enslaved by gross realities! 1835. |