Utopian Dreams and Lotus Leaves (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1885. Excerpt: ... UTOPIAN DREAMS And LOTUS LEAVES. ESTHETICISM. Like the bright and glowing radiance of the never-setting sun Rising in effulgent glory as the ceaseless ages run, Crowning with its golden vesture mountain tops and wooded plain As a hallowed benediction resting over earth and main, Is the spirit of all beauty--is the glad poetic thrill Of the universe of nature that the ages cannot still. And the souls of men enraptured, like imprisoned Titans rise To meet the star-eyed fancies of the ever-dreaming skies As they frown in clouds and tempest, as they smile in joy and shine Till the silver cloudlets lining and the opal shadows twine. For all nature hath a dreaming and a seeming unto man Like the blending of God's features that the soul must rise and scan. O the beautiful in beauty O the loveliness in love O the sweetness of suggestion in fair Venus and her dove In the wisdom of a Pallas, in a Juno's grace and mien, In the strength of Jove's deep thunder, in the smile of Luna's sheen As she bends to brave Endymion sleeping on the moonlit hills, Till she lifts his drooping fancies, and her love his bosom fills. Comes no Helen from lost Ilium to enchant the ravished soul With her form like sweet Aurora bathed in burnished light and gold, With her queenly grace enthralling, and love's heaven in her eye, For which half the world would battle, and the other half would die? Comes no Hector, no Achilles? Has the world's heart lost its tongue? Tis because we have no Homer, and its songs are still unsung. i Is there beauty in a lily, shaped like ocean's listening shell, White as sea foam beat and sifted, where the raging billows swell? Pure as snow upon the mountains, where Diana's feet have trod; Chaste as angels' thoughts in heaven smiling goodness back to God? '...