Old Year Leaves Being Old Verses Revised: By H. T. Mackenzie Bell ... New Edition |
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THE POET'S POWERLESSNESS. |
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 | Old Year Leaves |  |
39
THE POET'S POWERLESSNESS.
Unto the poet's mental eye how clearAppears a scene he would in wise words weave
Into the varied texture of his verse!
A scene it is of beauty unsurpassed,—
Of hoary mountains whose gigantic peaks
Approach the sky,—of a fair wooded vale,—
And of a rushing rivulet, whose sound
Re-echoes in his ears. A simple theme
Methinks to handle, yet at once he finds
How hard it is to choose the magic words
With which to make the spell he trusts will bind
The senses of his readers. Ever thus
He feels it in description,—also when
Depicting subtle feelings of the soul,—
Indeed in every subject meet for song:—
And so he feels that words are at the best
Most ineffective colours to paint well
A theme Imagination-glorified.
| Old Year Leaves | |