Page images
PDF
EPUB

BEAUTY'S CASTLE.

O stupenda opra, O Dedalo architetto;
Qual fabrica tra noi le rassimiglia ?

ARIOSTO, Canto 34, stanza 53.

I.

By opal battlements engirt appear,

In workmanship as chaste as in design, Of diamond framed and gold high gates that near The castle built by Taste for Beauty shine; On earth inimitable, work-divine;

Rich with a thousand rooms, that multiplied By crystal mirrors, deepen like a mine

Exhaustless and illumed, a circle wide:

Pillars of emerald grace the hall in column'd pride.

II.

Here Beauty smiles ineffably enthroned;

Her smile diffusive is as solar light; Her voice is musical as harp fine-toned,

Conveying to the senses such delight

As the world feels when sunrise chases night

Away. Her robe is as the upper sky, If there one milky-way o'erpower the sight, Brilliant; angelic shapes around her fly; The loveliest maids with these fine spirits cannot vie!

III.

Diversely splendid, as o'er foliage glow
Autumnal colours, which the noonday sun
Mellows with golden light-or, as the bow
Arching the heavens, where mingling into one
Well-blended glory hues unnumber'd run—
As various flowers adorning gardens gay,
Where art completes what nature hath begun,
They shine; or as the intermingling play
Of splendours flashing forth from gems Sultanas vain
display!

IV.

Theirs is undying loveliness; while years

Flow on they are the same; nor grief nor pain Stain or impair their charms! They have no fears, No unavailing chase of pleasures vain ;

No love that withering, seldom blooms again!
Such are the ministering sprites that wait

On Beauty, fairer than the fairest train

Of virgins that adorn a monarch's state;

Or fays that bright as stars inventive bards create.

V.

Such seraphs are; they may idealized

Be, but no sculptors e'er their forms have wrought In marble; no, nor painters highly prized

Ever on canvas have their features caught, Though by such art the poesy of thought Is bodied forth; no poet can reveal (His mind with treasured imagery fraught) Those superhuman beings that the zeal Of Fancy would disclose, but Nature will conceal.

VI.

The glories of the fane well harmonize
Simplicity and grandeur; to and fro
Like sunbeams, or quick glances of bright eyes,
Rapid, ideal changes come and go,

Of living pictures an unending show

Here Fancy brightens with unwearied wing; Tides of celestial music onward flow

For ever! voices sweeter than in spring

Philomel's notes, in praise of Beauty ever sing!

ON

UVEDALE PRICE'S

"ESSAY ON THE PICTURESQUE.'

"Uvedale Price's Essay on the Picturesque, the most finished composition in the English language."-Dr. Parr.

A MASTER mind, that Taste and Genius grace,
The fine designs of Nature's hand can trace;
Where they may differ, where again we see
The beautiful and picturesque agree.

How light, where stands a tree of beauty plays,
The eye delighting through a thousand sprays :
How Autumn to the landscape gives a glow
Divine, that painters o'er their canvass throw;
Hence Titian's golden hue, and colouring warm,
That has of Autumn all the mellow charm.
How sudden bursts of sunshine in the spring
O'er the green flourishing tree their lustre fling;
The delicate foliage of the leaf conceals
In part the boughs beneath, in part reveals.

« PreviousContinue »