[12] Thus in 1833:—
One seemed a foreground black with stones and slags,
Below sun-smitten icy spires
Rose striped with long white cloud the scornful crags,
Deep trenched with thunder fires.
[13] Not inserted here in 1833, but the following in its place:—
Some showed far-off thick woods mounted with towers,
Nearer, a flood of mild sunshine
Poured on long walks and lawns and beds and bowers
Trellised with bunchy vine.
[14] Inserted in 1842.
[15] Thus in 1833, followed by the note:—
Or the maid-mother by a crucifix,
In yellow pastures sunny-warm,
Beneath branch-work of costly sardonyx,
Sat smiling, babe in arm.
When I first conceived the plan of the Palace of Art, I intended to have introduced both sculptures and paintings into it; but it is the most difficult of all things to devise a statue in verse. Judge whether I have succeeded in the statues of Elijah and Olympias.
One was the Tishbite whom the raven fed,
As when he stood on Carmel steeps,
With one arm stretched out bare, and mocked and said,
“Come cry aloud-he sleeps”.
Tall, eager, lean and strong, his cloak wind-borne
Behind, his forehead heavenly bright
From the clear marble pouring glorious scorn,
Lit as with inner light.
One, was Olympias: the floating snake
Rolled round her ancles, round her waist
Knotted, and folded once about her neck,
Her perfect lips to taste.
Round by the shoulder moved: she seeming blythe
Declined her head: on every side
The dragon’s curves melted and mingled with
The woman’s youthful pride
Of rounded limbs.
Or Venus in a snowy shell alone,
Deep-shadowed in the glassy brine,
Moonlike glowed double on the blue, and shone
A naked shape divine.
[16] Inserted in 1842.
[17] Thus in 1833:—
Or that deep-wounded child of Pendragon
Mid misty woods on sloping greens
Dozed in the valley of Avilion,
Tended by crowned queens.
The present reading is that of 1842. The reference is, of course, to King Arthur, the supposed son of Uther Pendragon.
In 1833 the following stanza, excised in 1842, followed:—
Or blue-eyed Kriemhilt from a craggy hold,
Athwart the light-green rows of vine,
Poured blazing hoards of Nibelungen gold,
Down to the gulfy Rhine.
[18] Inserted in 1842 thus:—
Or hollowing one hand against his ear,
To listen for a footfall, ere he saw
The wood-nymph, stay’d the Tuscan king to hear
Of wisdom and of law.
List a footfall, 1843. Ausonian for Tuscan, 1850. The reference is to Egeria and Numa Pompilius. Cf. Juvenal, iii., 11-18:—
Hic ubi nocturnæ
Numa constituebat amicæ
...
In vallem Ægeriæ descendimus et speluneas
Dissimiles veris.
and the beautiful passage in Byron’s Childe Harold, iv., st. cxv.-cxix.
[19] This is Camadev or Camadeo, the Cupid or God of Love of the Hindu mythology.
[20] This picture of Europa seems to have been suggested by Moschus, Idyll, ii., 121-5:—
ἡ δ’ αρ’ ἐφεζομένη Ζηνὸς βόεοις ἐπὶ νώτόις
τῇ μεν ἔχεν ταύρου δολιχὸν κέρας, ἐν χερὶ δ’ ἄλλῃ
εἴρυε πορφυρεας κόλπου πτύχας.