The weekly Floridian. [volume] (Tallahassee, Fla.) 1867-19??, 1884-04-22
SANDALPHON.

Expire in their rapture and wonder
AS harp st-in Is are brotcn asunder
BY music they throb = s;xi ress.
But serene in the rapturous tbrong
Onmoved by the ash of the song,
With eyes unmpassioned and slow
Among the dead angels the deathless
Sandaphon stands listening, brcathless
% sound that ascends from below -
From the spirits on cal III that adore.
From the souls that entrcat and mplore
In { &c fervor and passion of prayer;
From a the nenris it that a, are broken with losses,
100 htAvy for mo. als TO bear
And he gathers the prayer, as he stands
And they change mo flowers in his hands,
Into garlands of purple and red =
And beneath the great arch of the portal,
through the streets of the City immortal,
Is waited the fragrance they shed.
1t is but legend, l know
fable, a phantom show
OF the ancient I.abbinical lore
Yet he old medieval tradition,
The beautiful strange superstition,
Bu' haunts me and holds me the moe.
When look from my window at night
And the welkin above is all white,
All hrobbing and painting with stars
Among them majestic is standing
Sandaphon, the angel, eA panding
HIS piniOns in nebulous bars.
And the legend feel is part
OF the hunger and thirst of the beaii
The envy and fire of The brain,
nat SraSp6 al the irllltaIc forbidden,
1 he golden pomeg egranates of Eden,
To quiet lis fever and pain.
Do you not see in this poem the picture.
There as distinct as reality itself il the Outermost
gate of the Celestial City, and there with his feet
on the great ladder, reach ng from Heaven down
to earth, stands in calm rcpos" h" thlcssy list
cn'ng, the majestic SaRdalphon. A"ound him
are the dead angels OF wind and of fire (What
wonderful stretch ot The imarinati0n y Far,
far hcnca1h, at the foot cf the la, der, is group
that helps 10 carr: oUt thc idea of the picture.
This group IS composed of souls on earth who
adore, who enrcaf, who impo.e in the passion
of rraycY-~oulS whose hearts are broken, and
who are weary OF earth. Then look up again
and see how these prayers arc gathered by the
deathlrSs Sandal hon and are changed into flow
crS in his hands.
We will give but one other instance Take
his Hule poem OF TennySon
BREAK BREAK, BREAK.
Break break break
On thy cold gray stones. Sea
And woulu that my tongue could utter
The Thoughts that arise IN me-
Oh well for he ishcrman's boy
That shouts with his sister at play;
o well for he sailor ad
That he sing, in his boat the bay
And the stately ships 90 on
To their haven under the hill;
But O for the touch of a vanished hand
And the ou1d of voice that is still
Break, break break
At the foot Of thy crags, o sea
But the tender grace OF dav that is dead
Will never come back to me-
Did you not see The picture? In this the
thought is that Of the hearts sad ycp ming for a
companion lost TO it forever on cath But no.
tee how the poet has put this in picturesque
form. ihc lonely man is Standing on the sea
shore with the waves breaking on the stones at
his ;ett little way off on shore is the fisher
mans hoy shouting with his sister at play, and
on tn" water is Inc singing sailor lad bevond are
the stately ships s"loohly Dig to the harbor
under the hill.
Now this las may seem simple picture, and
II Is, but when We take the conception in as
whole when W think of the picture as contri-
buting 10 The embodiment of the thought, then
we see that it IS not the product of an OTdina.
mind. And lrther we that while the form
could not have been conceived by the ordinary
mind, yet the Ordina' Y mind has but to fully ap-
prehcnd il, when it at once acknowledges the
ap.ncss and b,auty of the form which the poet
has given TO his thought
| have now shown, rs it seems to me, clearly
enough the fact that the poet, as well as the
painter, employs hi' imagination in creating
forms and Thar the forms of the one (hear in
mind that | u.c re word form in its artistic
scnec), Al" csscria,'v the same as those Of the
other. In the same manner. had | the time,
could he shown The relation Of p0etl to the
other a,'s-music, sculpture and architecture.
In each you viii understand that the imagina-
ton is employed 10 express to The human mind
and heart that which is ideal and most elevated
and "autilul II though y sen men and in as
piration.
We are now prepared to understand why cul-
tivatcd men have in all ages placed poetry, paint
ing sculpture, mnsic and archi'C cture in the same
catcgo.r, md called them by way of distinction
the fine arts. Tho other ars-the culinary art
the weavcrs art, the glass SHOWERS art-con.-i
butte in salts. ng our physical wants; the fine
arts appeal to and graii,.yy that which is finest
and highest in uc our spiritual nature.
Now few points NOR" upon art-work and
shall proceed Ia di"cues the position claimed for
poet :.
/ have said that every t. L. work of art must
be an expression of truth, and that it must not
only be an expression OF lh, hut an ideal ex-
preston of truth md this l must explain.
Take for example Coleridgcs "Ancient Mariner"
In this poem is presented the universally admitted
truth that sin brings pl ,ishmcnt and that penance
expiates sin Take first The ideal the medieval idea
Of punishment. Sec the Ancient Mar ;1er after
the deed of gull! has Lcen committed
"Aonc, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on wide, wide sea-"
He stands upon the d".l of his ship the tim
ber; of which are shrin' ng and warping under
the blazing equatorial sun He stands there IN
the midst of the hundred dead men whose eyes
still curse him in death God was merciL
enough 10 let them die, but the Ancient Mariner
cannot die. IIe T. : to pray but not word Of
prayer can he utter. And then the phantom
ship and the two ghostly hags casting dice for
his soul And at last his be 'g able to pray
when he blcsscs the hateful watcr-snakes for
their beauty.
Now all this we cannot persuade ourselves
was real donbil IS no such thing could actually
happen But we recognize the fitness of the
scenes described representing the thought
il mems to express most ideal and subtle
manner
Let US rccur again to Longfe''sw' s Sandalphon.
l have shown you how the poem is really pic
turc. Now let US see ifit does not express its
thought in an ideal manner The disposition of
the human heart to pray and the desire that its
prayers may be heard in Heaven is universal
The nth all will ack rowledge. But see it
when presented in an ideal form. Our minds do
not believe that such a scene actually takes
place as LonglellOw here desc bes But we at
once recos us' its fitness and beauty in depicting
the unive sal ruth.
Now this character OF every work OF art,
namely, that ii must represent the ideal in
thought, feeling, beauty and aspiration, precludes
as you must plainly see the idea that 1t should
be mere transcript OF nature.
A lady lend of mine spent last summer, a
vear srO. in Boston, While there the public
had presented TO it for the first time picture by
Earnest Longell0w, sou of the poet The
pic. ire was called ION the Egean." Itrepresented