The quiet lake, the balmy air, The hill, the stream, the tower, the tree, Or is the dreary change in me? 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. "I wan der'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, Which is the bliss of solitude; 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." "The Princess." All along the valley while I walked to-day, And the general effect of nature on the poetic temperament seems undoubtedly to be a sad one. Thus Tennyson writes: "Tears, idle tears, Rise in the heart and gather to the eyes, And thinking of the days that are no more.” And Burns sings: "Ye banks and braes o' bonnie Doon, How can ye blume sae fair, How can ye chant, ye little birds, And I sae fu' o' care! "Thou'll break my heart, thou bonnie bird, That sings upon the bough; Thou minds me o' the happy days When my fause love was true. "Thou'll break my heart, thou bonnie bird, That sings beside thy mate; For sae I sat, and sae I sang, And wist na o' my fate." And again in the poem "To a Mountain Daisy": "There in thy scanty mantle clad, In humble guise; But now the share uptears thy bed, "E'en thou who mourn'st the Daisy's fate, Till crushed beneath the furrow's weight Similarly the old ballad tells how "Thy braes were bonnie, Yarrow stream, Behold my love, the flower of Yarrow." And Rossetti writes, in his intense vision of human grief: "Her seem'd she scarce had been a day One of God's choristers; The wonder was not yet quite gone From that still look of hers; Albeit to them she left, her day "The Braes of Yarrow." J. Logan. "The Blessed Damozel." Had counted as ten years. |