AN INVOCATION OF PHANTASY (FROM BEN JONSON'S "VISION of Delight") BREAK, Phant'sie, from thy cave of cloud, And spread thy purple wings: And various shapes of things. Create of airy forms a stream : It must have blood, and nought of phlegm; Yet let it like an odour rise To all the Senses here, And fall like sleep upon their eyes, Or music in their ear. I. TO POETS BARDS of Passion and of Mirth, -Yes: and those of heaven commune Browsed by none but Dian's fawns; Thus ye live on high, and then Bards of Passion and of Mirth, Double-lived in regions new! J. KEATS 2. THE SPLENDOUR FALLS THE splendour falls on castle walls And snowy summits old in story: The long light shakes across the lakes, And the wild cataract leaps in glory. Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying: Blow, bugle; answer, echoes, dying, dying, dying. O hark, O hear! how thin and clear, O sweet and far from cliff and scar The horns of Elfland faintly blowing! Blow, let us hear the purple glens replying: O love, they die in yon rich sky, Blow, bugle, blow, set the wild echoes flying; 3.-MADRIGALS OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY I THUS saith my Cloris bright, When we of Love sit down and talk together: "Beware of Love: Love is a walking sprite ; And Love is this and that, And O! I know not what ; And comes and goes again I wot not whither." No, no; these are but bugs1 to breed amazing, For in her eyes I saw his torchlight blazing. ΑΝΟΝ. 1 Bugbears: connected with pouk (Puck) and bogie. |