never yet been publicly exhibited. It is of the same class with his Rosalie and Evening Hymn, pictures which were not particularized in the above record, because they inspired no thought except of their excelling beauty, which draws the heart into itself.
These two sonnets may be interesting, as showing how similar trains of thought were opened in the minds of two observers.
“To-day I have been to see Mr. Allston’s new picture of The Bride, and am more convinced than ever of the depth and value of his genius, and of how much food for thought his works contain. The face disappointed me at first by its want of beauty. Then I observed the peculiar expression of the eyes, and that of the lids, which tell such a tale, as well as the strange complexion, all heightened by the colour of the background, till the impression became very strong. It is the story of the lamp of love, lighted, even burning with full force in a being that cannot yet comprehend it. The character is domestic, far more so than that of the ideal and suffering Rosalie, of which, nevertheless, it reminds you.
“TO W. ALLSTON, ON SEEING HIS ‘BRIDE.’
“Weary and slow and faint with heavy toil,
The fainting traveller pursues his way,
O’er dry Arabian sands the long, long day,
Where at each step floats up the dusty soil;
And when he finds a green and gladsome isle,
And flowing water in that plain of care,
And in the midst a marble fountain fair,
To tell that others suffered too erewhile,
And then appeased their thirst, and made this fount
To them a sad remembrance, but a joy
To all who follow—his tired spirits mount
At such dim-visioned company—so I
Drink of thy marble source, and do not count
Weary the way in which thou hast gone by.”
