26
PAPERS ON LITERATURE AND ART.
little girl, as she sits by the brook. The poem cannot fail to charm all who have treasured the precious memories of their own childhood, and remember how romance was there interwoven with reality.
Miss Barrett makes many most fair and distinct pictures, such as this of the Duchess May at the fatal moment when her lord’s fortress was giving way:
| Low she dropt her head and lower, till her hair coiled on the floor. |
| Toll slowly! |
| And tear after tear you heard, fall distinct as any word |
| Which you might be listening for. |
| “Get thee in, thou soft ladie!—here is never a place for thee.” |
| Toll slowly! |
| “Braid thy hair and clasp thy gown, that thy beauty in its moan |
| May find grace with Leigh of Leigh.” |
| She stood up in bitter case, with a pale yet steady face, |
| Toll slowly! |
| Like a statue thunderstruck, which, though quivering, seems to look |
| Right against the thunder-place, |
| And her feet trod in, with pride, her own tears i’ the stone beside. |
| Toll slowly! |
| Go to, faithful friends, go to!—Judge no more what ladies do, |
| No, nor how their lords may ride. |
and soon. There are passages in that poem beyond praise.
Here are descriptions as fine of another sort of person from
| LADY GERALDINE’S COURTSHIP. |
| Her foot upon the new-mown grass—bareheaded—with the flowing |
| Of the virginal white vesture, gathered closely to her throat; |
| With the golden ringlets in her neck, just quickened by her going, |
| And appearing to breathe sun for air, and doubting if to float,— |
| With a branch of dewy maple, which her right hand held above her, |
| And which trembled a green shadow in betwixt her and the skies,— |
| As she turned her face in going, thus she drew me on to love her, |
| And to study the deep meaning of the smile hid in her eyes. |
