LITMIR.BIZ

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Round her fair ear, and shade her damask cheek;

       Drinks the pure fragrance of her breath, and sips

       With tenderest touch the roses of her lips;—

       O'er female hearts with chaste seduction reigns,

And binds Society in silken chains.

IV. "If the wide eye the wavy lawns explores, The bending woodlands, or the winding shores, Hills, whose green sides with soft protuberance rise, Or the blue concave of the vaulted skies;—210 Or scans with nicer gaze the pearly swell Of spiral volutes round the twisted shell; Or undulating sweep, whose graceful turns Bound the smooth surface of Etrurian urns, When on fine forms the waving lines impress'd Give the nice curves, which swell the female breast; The countless joys the tender Mother pours Round the soft cradle of our infant hours, In lively trains of unextinct delight Rise in our bosoms recognized by sight; 220 Fond Fancy's eye recalls the form divine, And Taste sits smiling upon Beauty's shrine.

"Where Egypt's pyramids gigantic stand, And stretch their shadows o'er the shuddering sand; Or where high rocks o'er ocean's dashing floods Wave high in air their panoply of woods; Admiring Taste delights to stray beneath With eye uplifted, and forgets to breathe; Or, as aloft his daring footsteps climb, Crests their high summits with his arm sublime. 230

"Where mouldering columns mark the lingering wreck Of Thebes, Palmyra, Babylon, Balbec; The prostrate obelisk, or shatter'd dome, Uprooted pedestal, and yawning tomb, On loitering steps reflective Taste surveys With folded arms and sympathetic gaze; Charm'd with poetic Melancholy treads O'er ruin'd towns and desolated meads; Or rides sublime on Time's expanded wings, And views the fate of ever-changing things. 240

"When Beauty's streaming eyes her woes express, Or Virtue braves unmerited distress; Love sighs in sympathy, with pain combined, And new-born Pity charms the kindred mind; The enamour'd Sorrow every cheek bedews, And Taste impassion'd woos the tragic Muse.

"The rush-thatch'd cottage on the purple moor, Where ruddy children frolic round the door, The moss-grown antlers of the aged oak, The shaggy locks that fringe the colt unbroke, 250 The bearded goat with nimble eyes, that glare Through the long tissue of his hoary hair;— As with quick foot he climbs some ruin'd wall, And crops the ivy, which prevents its fall;— With rural charms the tranquil mind delight, And form a picture to the admiring sight. While Taste with pleasure bends his eye surprised In modern days at Nature unchastised.

"The Genius-Form, on silver slippers born, With fairer dew-drops gems the rising morn; 260 Sheds o'er meridian skies a softer light, And decks with brighter pearls the brow of night; With finer blush the vernal blossom glows, With sweeter breath enamour'd Zephyr blows, The limpid streams with gentler murmurs pass, And gayer colours tinge the watery glass, Charm'd round his steps along the enchanted groves Flit the fine forms of Beauties, Graces, Loves.

V. "Alive, each moment of the transient hour, When Rest accumulates sensorial power, 270 The impatient Senses, goaded to contract, Forge new ideas, changing as they act; And, in long streams dissever'd, or concrete In countless tribes, the fleeting forms repeat. Which rise excited in Volition's trains, Or link the sparkling rings of Fancy's chains; Or, as they flow from each translucent source, Pursue Association's endless course.

"Hence when the inquiring hands with contact fine Trace on hard forms the circumscribing line; 280 Which then the language of the rolling eyes From distant scenes of earth and heaven supplies; Those clear ideas of the touch and sight Rouse the quick sense to anguish or delight; Whence the fine power of Imitation springs, And apes the outlines of external things; With ceaseless action to the world imparts All moral virtues, languages, and arts. First the charm'd Mind mechanic powers collects, Means for some end, and causes of effects; 290 Then learns from other Minds their joys and fears, Contagious smiles and sympathetic tears.

"What one fine stimulated Sense discerns, Another Sense by Imitation learns.— So in the graceful dance the step sublime Learns from the ear the concordance of Time. So, when the pen of some young artist prints Recumbent Nymphs in Titian's living tints; The glowing limb, fair cheek, and flowing hair, Respiring bosom, and seductive air, 300 He justly copies with enamour'd sigh From Beauty's image pictured on his eye.

"Thus when great Angelo in wondering Rome Fix'd the vast pillars of Saint Peter's dome, Rear'd rocks on rocks sublime, and hung on high A new Pantheon in the affrighted sky. Each massy pier, now join'd and now aloof, The figured architraves, and vaulted roof, Ailes, whose broad curves gigantic ribs sustain, Where holy echoes chant the adoring strain; 310 The central altar, sacred to the Lord, Admired by Sages, and by Saints ador'd, Whose brazen canopy ascends sublime On spiral columns unafraid of Time, Were first by Fancy in ethereal dyes Plann'd on the rolling tablets of his eyes; And his true hand with imitation fine Traced from his Retina the grand design.

"The Muse of Mimicry in every age With silent language charms the attentive stage; 320 The Monarch's stately step, and tragic pause, The Hero bleeding in his country's cause, O'er her fond child the dying Mother's tears, The Lover's ardor, and the Virgin's fears; The tittering Nymph, that tries her comic task, Bounds on the scene, and peeps behind her mask, The Punch and Harlequin, and graver throng, That shake the theatre with dance and song, With endless trains of Angers, Loves, and Mirths, Owe to the Muse of Mimicry their births. 330

      "Hence to clear images of form belong The sculptor's statue, and the poet's song, The painter's landscape, and the builder's plan, And Imitation marks the mind of Man.

VI. "When strong desires or soft sensations move The astonish'd Intellect to rage or love; Associate tribes of fibrous motions rise, Flush the red cheek, or light the laughing eyes. Whence ever-active Imitation finds The ideal trains, that pass in kindred minds; 340 Her mimic arts associate thoughts excite And the first Language enters at the sight.

"Thus jealous quails or village-cocks inspect Each other's necks with stiffen'd plumes erect; Smit with the wordless eloquence, they know The rival passion of the threatening foe. So when the famish'd wolves at midnight howl, Fell serpents hiss, or fierce hyenas growl; Indignant Lions rear their bristling mail, And lash their sides with undulating tail. 350 Or when the Savage-Man with clenched fist Parades, the scowling champion of the list; With brandish'd arms, and eyes that roll to know Where first to fix the meditated blow; Association's mystic power combines Internal passions with external signs.

"From these dumb gestures first the exchange began Of viewless thought in bird, and beast, and man; And still the stage by mimic art displays Historic pantomime in modern days; 360 And hence the enthusiast orator affords Force to the feebler eloquence of words.

"Thus the first Language, when we frown'd or smiled, Rose from the cradle, Imitation's child; Next to each thought associate sound accords, And forms the dulcet symphony of words; The tongue, the lips articulate; the throat With soft vibration modulates the note; Love, pity, war, the shout, the song, the prayer Form quick concussions of elastic air. 370

"Hence the first accents bear in airy rings The vocal symbols of ideal things, Name each nice change appulsive powers supply To the quick sense of touch, or ear or eye. Or in fine traits abstracted forms suggest Of Beauty, Wisdom, Number, Motion, Rest; Or, as within reflex ideas move, Trace the light steps of Reason, Rage, or Love. The next new sounds adjunctive thoughts recite, As hard, odorous, tuneful, sweet, or white. 380 The next the fleeting images select Of action, suffering, causes and effect; Or mark existence, with the march sublime O'er earth and ocean of recording Time.

"The Giant Form on Nature's centre stands, And waves in ether his unnumber'd hands; Whirls the bright planets in their silver spheres, And the vast sun round other systems steers; Till the last trump amid the thunder's roar Sound the dread Sentence "Time shall be no more!"

"Last steps Abbreviation, bold and strong, 391 And leads the volant trains of words along; With sweet loquacity to Hermes springs, And decks his forehead and his feet with

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