As a work of art, the most serious defect in The Spanish Gypsy is its doctrinal tone. It is speculative in its purpose quite as much as poetical, and the speculation is so large an element as to intrude upon the poetry. Thought overtops imagination, the fervor and enthusiasm of the poet are more than matched by the ethical aims of the teacher. This ethical purpose of unfolding in a dramatic form the author's theories of life has filled the book, as it has her novels, with epigrams which are original, splendid and instructive. Into a few lines she condenses some piece of wisdom, and in words full of meaning and purpose. Into the mouth of Sephardo, a character distinctive and noteworthy, she puts some of her choicest wisdom. He says,—
Thought
Has joys apart, even in blackest woe,
And seizing some fine thread of verity
Knows momentary godhead.
Again he utters the same idea, but in more expressive words.
Our growing thought
Makes growing revelation.
Don Silva is made to use this highly poetic imagery.
Speech is but broken light upon the depth
Of the unspoken.
Zarca, that truest and most original character in the poem, says of the great work he purposes to accomplish,
To my inward vision
Things are achieved when they are well begun.
Again, he says,—
New thoughts are urgent as the growth of wings.