It would have been a highly poetical idea to imagine the tints in
the locks of the maiden deducing a resemblance to the "twilight of the
trees and rocks," from the constancy of her associations- but the
spirit of Ideality is immeasurably more apparent when the "twilight"
is represented as becoming identified with the shadows of her hair.
The twilight of the trees and rocks
Is in the light shade of her locks,
And all the beauty of the place
Is in her heart and on her face.
Feeling thus, we did not, in copying the poem, [comment on] the lines,
although beautiful,
Thy step is as the wind that weaves
Its playful way among the leaves,
nor those which immediately follow. The two concluding verses however,
are again of the most elevated species of poetical merit.
The forest depths by foot impressed
Are not more sinless than thy breast-
The holy peace that fills the air
Of those calm solitudes, is there.
The image contained in the lines
Thine eyes are springs in whose serene
And silent waters Heaven is seen-
is one which, we think, for appropriateness, completeness, and every
perfect beauty of which imagery is susceptible, has never been
surpassed- but imagery is susceptible of no beauty like that we have
designated in the sentences above.
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