37 



Byron, again, very beautifully, but perhaps too ingeniously for purely 

 poetical effect, describes Bianca (in tlie " Giaour ") as having 



" A foot of snow, that falls to earth as mute." 

 In such instances we are more struck with the ingenuity of the idea 

 than with the truth of the feeling expressed, and experience rather the 

 surprise afforded by wit, than the sense of beauty or grandeur which 

 true poetry always conveys. Such instances, however, illustrate the 

 analogy which exists, to a certain extent, between poetry and wit, the 

 effect of each being to surprise us by an unexpected congruity, but the 

 one by its appeal to our sympathising emotions, the other by its 

 amusing oddity. 



The child's fancy, that the whispered sound of the shell held to the 

 ear is the retained roar of its native sea, is full of poetry, and poets 

 have not failed to make beautiful use of it. Thus Landor, in his 

 "Gebir:"— 



" But I have sinuous shells of pearly hue 

 Within ; and they that lustre have imhibed 

 In the sun's j)alace-porch, where, when unyoked, 

 His chariot wheel stands midway in the wave. 

 Shake one, and it awakens ; then apply 

 Its polished lips to your attentive ear, 

 And it remembers its august ahodes, 

 And murmurs as the ocean murmurs there." 



Wordsworth also, in his "Excursion," Book IV. — 



" I have seen 



X curious child, who dwelt ujion a tract 



Of inland ground, applying to his ear 



The convolutions of a smooth-lipped shell ; 



To which, in silence hushed, his very soul 



Listened intensely ; and his countenance soon 



Brightened mth joy ; for murmuriugs from within 



Were heard, sonorous cadences ! wlierehy, 



To his belief, the monitor expressed 



Mysterious union with his native sea. 



Even such a shell the universe itself 



Is to the ear of faith ; and there are times, 



I doubt not, when to you it doth impart 



Authentic tidings of invisible things; 



Of ebb and flow, and ever during power; 



And central peace, subsisting at the heart 



Of endless agitation." 

 It is not improbable that, in like manner, much of the poetiy of the 

 ancient Greeks and Hebrews originated in positive belief of the objec- 

 tive reality of ideas which were afterwards recognised only by the 

 iniagiuatiou and heart of the poet. Much of the bold and sublime 



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