Wherefore thus soared that structure? sculptured stone Inscription-allegory-here are none To guide you. Rise; adventurous traveller; climb Rome, who inherited the World, lies dead: Nismes, November 2, 1843. SHADOWS.-A FRAGMENT. SUGGESTED BY A SEA-VIEW ON THE COAST OF THE MEDITERRANEAN. FROM this tall cliff We look with bird's-eye view on clearest sea, The sunken rocks, sea-weeds, and golden sands Thus not alone do things Opake and rigid, but transparent things, Endowed with perfect laxity of atoms, Fling shadows from them. 'Tis the same with things And so we cannot choose but call them shadows. The wholesome or unwholesome shade they cast May work much good or evil upon earth. Oneglia, November, 1843. GENOA. EXTRACT FROM MANUSCRIPT JOURNAL. E were quite prepared beforehand to be pleased WE with Genoa, and were not disappointed. The impressions as to general effect which that city conveys are of a singularly novel and forcible character. Genoa has in profusion its marble palaces, whose walls are arrayed in all their ancient solid and costly magnificence; but I would chiefly dwell upon the perpetual intervention of variously coloured architectural views, painted in close juxtaposition with, and even upon, these same marble walls: so that you may really pause in the streets, and imagine you are gazing at the scenery of a theatre: yet from the effects of proportion, aided by the rich tone of the climate, there results truth and harmony from that which, elsewhere, would only suggest the idea of a ludicrous attempt at deception. The streets are narrow and sombre, but they are not gloomy; and you may see overhead a strip of blue sky broken by the palace cornices; whilst in the side lanes the sunshine streams from above, as through an absolute slit. But when the sky is overcast, the want of illumination destroys all the singularity and beauty of these effects. The prevailing idea is still that of the scenery of a theatre; but of a theatre as seen by an insufficient light. Again, the dimensions of the great hall of the ducal palace are truly noble; but for the most part the ornaments which it contains are the veriest trash imaginable. The statues in the niches (if they deserve the name of statues) are merely counterfeits, made up of plaster, rags, and paper; but it is quite surprising how fine is the effect thus demonstrated to be attainable by the force of proportion and colouring alone. Genoa, November, 1843. |