Stowe II V&A Detail

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Stowe II reworked detail...... V&A

 

He comes! he comes! in every breeze the power

Of philosophic melancholy comes!

His near approach the sudden-starting tear,

The glowing cheek, the mild dejected air,

The softened feature, and the beating heart,

Pierced deep with many a virtuous pang, declare.

O'er all the soul his sacred influence breathes;

Inflames imagination; through the breast

Infuses every tenderness; and far

Beyond dim earth exalts the swelling thought.

Ten thousand thousand fleet ideas, such

As never mingled with the vulgar dream,

Crowd fast into the mind's creative eye.

As fast the correspondent passions rise,

As varied, and as high; devotion raised

To rapture, and divine astonishment;

The love of Nature unconfined, and, chief,

Of human race; the large ambitious wish,

To make them blest; the sigh for suffering worth,

Lost in obscurity; the noble scorn

Of tyrant pride; the fearless great resolve;

The wonder which the dying patriot draws,

Inspiring glory through remotest time;

The awakened throb for virtue, and for fame;

The sympathies of love, and friendship dear;

With all the social offspring of the heart.

Done