FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164  
165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   >>   >|  
n! * * * * * Sweet queen of parley, daughter of the sphere, So may'st thou be translated to the skies, And give resounding grace to all heaven's harmonies. And again, the description of Chastity, in the same poem, is inimitable in the language: So dear to Heaven is saintly Chastity, That when a soul is found sincerely so, A thousand liveried angels lackey her. HIS SCHOLARSHIP.--It is unnecessary to state the well-known fact, attested by all his works, of his elegant and versatile scholarship. He was the most learned man in England in his day. If, like J. C. Scaliger, he did not commit Homer to memory in twenty-one days, and the whole of the Greek poets in three months, he had all classical learning literally at his fingers' ends, and his works are absolutely glistening with drops which show that every one has been dipped in that Castalian fountain which, it was fabled, changed the earthly flowers of the mind into immortal jewels. Nor need we refer to what every one concedes, that a vein of pure but austere morals runs through all his works; but Puritan as he was, his myriad fancy led him into places which Puritanism abjured: the cloisters, with their dim religious light, in _Il Penseroso_--and anon with mirth he cries: Come and trip it as you go, On the light fantastic toe. SONNETS.--His sonnets have been variously estimated: they are not as polished as his other poems, but are crystal-like and sententious, abrupt bursts of opinion and feeling in fourteen lines. Their masculine power it was which caused Wordsworth, himself a prince of sonneteers, to say: In his hand, The thing became a trumpet, whence he blew Soul-animating strains.... That to his dead wife, whom he saw in a vision; that to Cyriac Skinner on his blindness, and that to the persecuted Waldenses, are the most known and appreciated. That to Skinner is a noble assertion of heart and hope: Cyriac, this three-years-day these eyes, though clear To outward view, of blemish and of spot, Bereft of light, their seeing have forgot: Nor to their idle orbs doth sight appear Of sun, or moon, or star, throughout the year, Or man, or woman. Yet I argue not Against Heaven's hand or will, nor bate a jot Of heart or hope; but still bear up and steer Right onward. What supports me, dost thou ask?
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   164  
165   166   167   168   169   170   171   172   173   174   175   176   177   178   179   180   181   182   183   184   185   186   187   188   189   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Skinner
 

Cyriac

 

Chastity

 

Heaven

 

crystal

 
sententious
 
SONNETS
 

fantastic

 
trumpet
 

animating


strains

 

bursts

 
masculine
 

feeling

 
polished
 

fourteen

 
caused
 
Wordsworth
 

abrupt

 

sonnets


sonneteers

 

prince

 

estimated

 

variously

 

opinion

 

Waldenses

 

Against

 

supports

 

onward

 

assertion


appreciated

 
vision
 

blindness

 

persecuted

 

forgot

 
Bereft
 

outward

 
blemish
 

elegant

 
versatile

attested
 

SCHOLARSHIP

 
unnecessary
 
scholarship
 

commit

 

memory

 
twenty
 

sphere

 
Scaliger
 

England