sad and weary affair, unless shared with County Guy. And what suggestions nature makes to the aged ministrel describing the battle: "There is no breeze upon the fern, No ripple on the lake, Upon her eyry nods the erne, The deer has sought the brake; So darkly glooms yon thunder cloud, Is it the thunder's solemn sound Or echoes from the groaning ground The warrior's measur'd tread? Or do they flash on spear and lance The following fine description of a sunset is full of sad regret, recalling happier hours, ere they faded away and were gone like the setting sun: "The sultry Summer day is done, The western hills have hid the sun, "The Lady of the Lake." Canto VI. "Rokeby." Canto V. "Mar mion." Canto II. Written for Melodies." And Stanmore's ridge, behind that lay, And how full of sadness are these lines: "Now from the summit to the plain Of early friendships, past and gone." The following pathetic verses show clearly how deeply nature reflected his changed feelings: "The sun upon the Weirdlaw Hill The westland wind is hush'd and still, Yet not the landscape to mine eye Bears those bright hues that once it wore, Though evening with her richest dye "With listless look along the plain I see Tweed's silver current glide, The quiet lake, the balmy air, The hill, the stream, the tower, the tree, "Alas, the warp'd and broken board, Were barren as this moorland hill." This poem shows how subjective was Scott's view of nature, and he seems in it to completely refute Ruskin's argument in his own verse. That nature is not always sad to the poets we see in Wordsworth's beautiful poem about the daffodils, and the delight the recollection of them gave him: "I wander'd lonely as a cloud That floats on high o'er vales and hills, A host of golden daffodils, Beside the lake beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze. "The waves beside them danc'd, but they A poet could not but be gay "I wander'd lonely as a cloud." "To Daffodils." R. Herrick. In such a jocund company! I gaz'd and gaz'd- but little thought "For oft when on my couch I lie, In vacant or in pensive mood, And then my heart with pleasure fills And dances with the daffodils." But these same flowers suggested a sadder train of thought to Herrick: "Fair Daffodils, we weep to see You haste away so soon; As yet the early-rising sun Has not attain'd his noon. Tennyson in this well-known passage shows how the same scene can be full of happiness or despairing sorrow, in accordance with the feelings of the lover: "Many an evening on the moorland did we hear the copses ring, And her whisper throng'd my pulses with the fulness of the Spring. Many an evening by the waters did we watch the stately ships, And our spirits rushed together at the touching of the lips. O my cousin, shallow hearted! O my Amy, mine no more! O the dreary, dreary moorland! O the barren, barren shore!" And again in one of the most perfect of his short pieces he tells of a scene recalling to memory the friend he had loved and lost. How fine is the effect of the constant repetition of the words "All along the valley"! It seems to unite the present and the past, and to give a permanence and reality to the poet's dream and make it a living thing: "All along the valley, stream that flashest white, Deepening thy voice with the deepening of the night, All along the valley where thy waters flow, I walk'd with one I loved, two and thirty years ago. "Locksley Hall." "In the Valley of Cauteretz." |