The voices of thy kindred band—
Oh! midst them all when bless’d thou art,
Deal gently with the stranger’s heart!
TO A REMEMBERED PICTURE.
[She was singularly impressed by the picture at Holyrood House, shown as that of Rizzio. The authenticity of this designation is more than doubtful; but hers was not a mind for question or cavil on points of this nature. The “local habitation and the name” were in themselves sufficient to awaken her fancy, and to satisfy her faith. As Rizzio’s portrait, it took its place in her imagination; and the train of deep and mournful thoughts it suggested, imbued, as was her wont, with the colouring of her own individual feelings, was embodied in the lines “To a Remembered Picture.”—Memoir, p. 197-8.]
They haunt me still—those calm, pure, holy eyes!
Their piercing sweetness wanders through my dreams;
The soul of music that within them lies
Comes o’er my soul in soft and sudden gleams:
Life—spirit-life—immortal and divine—