imagery rises! flown like a thought blissfully haven'd-clasp'd like a missal in a land of Pagans : that is to say, where Christian prayer-books must not be seen, and are, therefore, doubly cherished for the danger. And then, although nothing can surpass the preciousness of this idea, is the idea of the beautiful, crowning all Blinded alike from sunshine and from rain, As though a rose should shut, and be a bud again. Thus it is that poetry, in its intense sympathy with creation, may be said to create anew, rendering its words more impressive than the objects they speak of, and individually more lasting; the spiritual perpetuity putting them on a level (not to speak it profanely) with the fugitive compound. 14 Lucent syrups tinct with cinnamon."-Here is delicate modulation, and super-refined epicurean nicety! Lucent syrups tinct with cinnamon; make us read the line delicately, and at the tip-end, as it were, of one's tongue. 15“ Beyond a mortal man.”—Madeline is half awake, and Porphyro reassures her, with loving, kind looks, and an affectionate embrace. 16“ Heart-shap'd and vermeil-dyed.”—With what a pretty wilful conceit the costume of the poem is kept up in this line about the shield! The poet knew when to introduce apparent trifles forbidden to those who are void of real passion, and who, feeling nothing intensely, can intensify nothing. 17“ Carpets rose.”—This is a slip of the memory, for there were hardly carpets in those days. But the truth of the painting makes amends, as in the unchronological pictures of old masters. LONELY SOUNDS. Undescribed sounds, That come a-swooning over hollow grounds, ORION. At this, with madden'd stare, And lifted hands, and trembling lips he stood, CIRCE AND HER VICTIMS. Fierce, wan, And tyrannizing was the lady's look, As over them a gnarlèd staff she shook. Ofttimes upon the sudden she laugh'd out, Clusters of grapes, the which they raven'd quick And roar'd for more, with many a hungry lick And emptied on 't a black dull-gurgling phial: Shrieks, yells, and groans, of torture-pilgrimage. A BETTER ENCHANTRESS IMPRISONED IN THE SHAPE She was a gordian shape of dazzling hue, Her head was serpent, but, ah, bitter sweet! She had a woman's mouth, with all its pearls complete. SATURN DETHRONED. Deep in the shady sadness of a vale, Spreading a shade: the Naiad 'mid her reeds His old right hand lay nerveless, listless, dead, Unsceptred; and his realmless eyes were closed. THE VOICE OF A MELANCHOLY GODDESS SPEAKING As when upon a trancèd summer-night A FALLEN GOD. The bright Titan, frenzied with new woes, Upon the boundaries of day and night, He stretch'd himself, in grief and radiance faint. OTHER TITANS FALLEN. Scarce images of life, one here, one there, ODE TO A NIGHTINGALE.18 My heart aches, and a drowsy numbness pains One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk. Of beeches green, and shadows numberless, |