"As You Like it." "The Merchant of Venice." Examples of the suggestive power of nature are found in the works of nearly all the great poets. This view is not developed to any great extent by the earlier poets, yet it is hinted at by Shakespeare, Herrick, and Milton, and others in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. But from the latter part of the eighteenth century the idea of finding our own feelings reflected in nature grows and develops into the modern subjective way of looking at the outside world. Thus we find in Shakespeare: And "Blow, blow, thou wintry wind, Thou art not so unkind As man's ingratitude; Thy tooth is not so keen Because thou art not seen, "Look how the floor of heaven Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold; But in his motion like an angel sings, Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubims, Such harmony is in immortal souls; But whilst this muddy vesture of decay Doth grossly close us in, we cannot hear it." And in Milton: "But neither breath of morn when she ascends When we come to the modern poets, the subjective view is much more strongly developed. Thus Byron tells us what bitter feelings oppressed him when he looked on the loveliness of Greece: "The Isles of Greece, the Isles of Greece! And musing there an hour alone, I dream'd that Greece might still be free; For standing on the Persians' grave, I could not deem myself a slave. "What! silent still? and silent all? "Paradise Lost." Book IV. "Don Juan." Canto III. "Quentin Durward." In a fine chapter on the poetry of Sir Walter Scott, Ruskin, while recognizing the sadness. in his writings, tries to prove that his habit was not of looking at nature as changed by his own feelings in this way, but as having an animation and pathos of its own, wholly irrespective of human presence or passion. He paints nature as it is in itself, bright, serene, or gloomy. But we think few people can agree with Ruskin in this. Scott's descriptions of nature are very beautiful, but like other great artists he very often, and in his finest passages descriptive of nature, reflects the moods of man, as the following instances will show. In the touching song: "Ah, County Guy, the hour is nigh, The sun has left the lea, The orange flower perfumes the bower, The breeze is on the sea. The lark his lay, who trill'd all day, Sits hush'd his partner nigh, Bird, breeze, and flower proclaim the hour, what matters it, the beauty and loveliness 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 "Rokeby." Canto V. "Marmion." Canto II. Written for And Stanmore's ridge, behind that lay, Then slow resigns to darkening heaven 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 Bears those bright hues that once it wore, "With listless look along the plain I see Tweed's silver current glide, |