A JEWISH FAMILY (IN A SMALL VALLEY OPPOSITE ST. GOAR, UPON GENIUS of Raphael! if thy wings Thou wouldst forego the neighbouring Rhine, And all his majesty, A studious forehead to incline O'er this poor family. The mother, her thou must have seen, In spirit, ere she came To dwell these rifted rocks between, Of playfulness, and love, and joy, Downcast, or shooting glances far, I see the dark-brown curls, the brow, The grace of parting infancy Age faithful to the mother's knee, Two lovely sisters, still and sweet Such beauty hath the Eternal poured Though of a lineage once abhorred, Mysterious safeguard, that, in spite Doth here preserve a living light, Of Palestine, of glory past, And proud Jerusalem! ON THE POWER OF SOUND The Ear addressed, as occupied by a spiritual functionary, in communion with sounds, individual, or combined in studied harmony. Sources and effects of those sounds (to the close of 6th Stanza).-The power of music, whence proceeding, exemplified in the idiot.-Origin of music, and its effect in early ages-how produced (to the middle of 10th Stanza).-The mind recalled to sounds acting casually and severally.-Wish uttered (11th Stanza) that these could be united into a scheme or system for moral interests and intellectual contemplation.-(Stanza 12th) -The Pythagorean theory of numbers and music, with their supposed power over the motions of the universe-imaginations consonant with such a theory.-Wish expressed (in 11th Stanza) realised in some degree, by the representation of all sounds under the form of thanksgiving to the Creator.(Last Stanza) the destruction of earth and the planetary system-the survival of audible harmony, and its support in the Divine Nature, as revealed in Holy Writ. THY functions are ethereal, As if within thee dwelt a glancing mind, Intricate labyrinth, more dread for thought To enter than oracular cave; Strict passage, through which sighs are brought, And whispers for the heart, their slave; And shrieks, that revel in abuse Of shivering flesh; and warbled air, Hosannas pealing down the long-drawn aisle, The headlong streams and fountains Serve thee, invisible spirit, with untired powers; Cheering the wakeful tent on Syrian mountains, They lull perchance ten thousand thousand flowers. That roar, the prowling lion's Here I am, How fearful to the desert wide! That bleat, how tender! of the dam Shout, cuckoo! let the vernal soul Go with thee to the frozen zone; Toll from thy loftiest perch, lone bell-bird, toll! Mercy from her twilight throne Listening to nun's faint throb of holy fear, Ye voices, and ye shadows And images of voice, to hound and horn And milder echoes from their cells Where mists are breaking up or gone, And from aloft look down into a cove Blest be the song that brightens The blind man's gloom, exalts the veteran's mirth; Nor friendless he, the prisoner of the mine, Who from the well-spring of his own clear breast When civic renovation Dawns on a kingdom, and for needful haste Mounts with a tune, that travels like a blast Of promises, shrill, wild, and sweet! Who, from a martial pageant, spreads Incitements of a battle-day, Thrilling the unweaponed crowd with plumeless heads? Even she whose Lydian airs inspire Peaceful striving, gentle play Of timid hope and innocent desire Shot from the dancing graces, as they move How oft along thy mazes, Regent of sound, have dangerous passions trod ! Thy votaries, wooingly resigned That taints the purer, better, mind; But lead sick fancy to a harp That hath in noble tasks been tried ; The uplifted arm of suicide; And let some mood of thine in firm array As conscience, to the centre Of being, smites with irresistible pain, And then aghast, as at the world Of reason partially let in By concords winding with a sway Terrible for sense and soul ! Or awed he weeps, struggling to quell dismay. Lodged above the starry pole; Pure modulations flowing from the heart Of divine love, where wisdom, beauty, truth Oblivion may not cover All treasures hoarded by the miser, time. |