Page:Edgar Allan Poe - how to know him.djvu/124

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
104
EDGAR ALLAN POE

blance to the "twilight of the trees and rocks," from the constancy of her associations—but the spirit of Ideality is immeasurably more apparent when the "twilight" is represented as becoming identified with the shadows of her hair.

The twilight of the trees and rocks
Is in the light shade of her locks,
And all the beauty of the place
Is in her heart and on her face.

Feeling thus, we did not, in copying the poem, italicize the lines, although beautiful,

Thy step is as the wind that weaves
Its playful way among the leaves,

nor those which immediately follow. The two concluding verses, however, are again of the most elevated species of poetical merit.

The forest depths by foot impressed
Are not more sinless than thy breast—
The holy peace that fills the air
Of those calm solitudes, is there.

The image contained in the lines

Thine eyes are springs in whose serene
And silent waters Heaven is seen—

is one which, we think, for appropriateness, completeness, and every perfect beauty of which imagery is susceptible, has never been surpassed—but imagery is susceptible of no beauty like that we have designated in the sentences above. The latter idea, moreover, is not original with our poet.

In all the rhapsodies of Mr. Bryant, which have reference to the beauty or the majesty of nature, is a most audible and thrilling tone of love and exultation.