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PDFThe rock in the centre of the falls, where the water
was most abundant, a deep black, the adjoining parts
yellow, white, purple, and dove-colour, covered with
water-plants of the most vivid green, and hung with
streaming icicles, that in some places seem to conceal
the verdure of the plants, and the violet and yellow
variegation of the rocks; and in some places render
the colours more brilliant. I cannot express
to you the enchanting effect produced by this Arabian
scene of colour as the wind blew aside the great waterfall
behind which we stood, and alternately hid and revealed
each of these fairy cataracts in irregular succession,
or displayed them with various gradations of distinctness
as the intervening spray was thickened or dispersed.
What a scene, too, in summer! In the luxury of
our imagination we could not help feeding upon the
pleasure which this cave, in the heat of a July noon,
would spread through a frame exquisitely sensible.
That huge rock on the right, the bank winding round
on the left, with all its living foliage, and the breeze
stealing up the valley, and bedewing the cavern with
the freshest imaginable spray. And then the murmur
of the water, the quiet, the seclusion, and a long
summer day.’[47]
25. Inconsistent Opinions on his Poems.
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----------------------------| | ‘HARMONIES OF CRITICISM.’ | |---------------------------------------|-------------------
-----------------------| | ‘Nutting.’ | ‘Nutting.’ | |Mr. C.W.: | ’Mr. S.: | |’Worth its weight in gold.’ | ’Can make neither head nor tail of it.’| | | | | ‘Joanna.’ | ‘Joanna.’ | | | | |Mr. J.W.: | Mr. S.: | |’The finest poem of its | | |length you have written.’ | ‘Can make nothing of it.’ | | | | | ‘Poet’s Epitaph.’ | ‘Poet’s Epitaph.’ | | | | |Mr. Charles Lamb: | Mr. S.: | |’The latter part preeminently | | |good, and your own.’ | ’The latter part very ill written. | | | | | ‘Cumberland Beggar.’ | ‘Cumberland Beggar.’ |
