62 
Like a glow worm golden 
In a dell of dew, 
Scattering unbeholden 
Its aérial hue 
Among the flowers and grass, which screen it from the view: 
Like the rose embowered 
In its own green leaves, 
By warm winds deflowered, 
Till the scent it gives 
Makes faint with too much sweet these heavy-winged thieves. 
Sound of vernal showers 
On the twinkling grass, 
Rain-awakened flowers 
All that ever was 
Joyous and clear and fresh,{thy music doth surpass. 
Such is the work of the fancy. Butit was the higher faculty 
which conceived and harmonized the idea of setting up, as 
against the joyous and unreflecting bird, the image of a man 
tragically bearing his load of sorrow and of knowledge: 
We look before and after, 
And pine for what is not; 
Our sincerest laughter 
With some pain is fraught ; 
Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought. 
Better than all measures 
Of delightful sound, 
Better than all treasures 
That in books are found, 
Thy skill to poet were, thou scorner of the ground! 
Teach me half the gladness 
That thy brain must know, 
Such harmonious madness 
From my lips would flow. 
The world would listen then, as I am listening now. 
I have quoted only those stanzas of this poem which, as it 
seemed to me, would help us to understand the distinct and yet 
the nearly allied work of the imagination and the fancy. The 
whole poem, however, would be found fruitful in teaching both 
to the painter and the poet, and cannot be too carefully studied 
by either. 
The limits of this address forbid that I should pursue the 
subject further. Otherwise there are many other relations 
existing between the arts of literature and painting to which our 
consideration might be given. It would be profitable for instance, 
to enquire how far that quality which we call style is identical in 
its nature, and how far also, in the two cases, it is the one thing 
which, although apparently not of the essence of the work is 
absolutely essential to survival and to the exercise of permanent 
power over mankind. In another branch of the subject it would 
have been pleasant to dwell upon the painters who have given 
their best work to the illustration and embodiment of the poets 
