Arts & Sciences

On Seeing the Picture of Aeolus, by Pellegrino Tibaldi

by Washington Allston 1779–1843

From The Poets and Poetry of America (1855)

Arts & Sciences

Full well, Tibaldi, did thy kindred mind
The mighty spell of Bonaroti own.
Like one who, reading magic words, receives
The gift of intercourse with worlds unknown,
'T was thine, deciph'ring Nature's mystic leaves,
To hold strange converse with the viewless wind:
To see the spirits, in imbodied forms,
Of gales and whirlwinds, hurricanes and storms.
For, lo! obedient to thy bidding, teems
Fierce into shape their stern, relentless lord:
His form of motion ever-restless seems;
Or, if to rest inclined his turbid soul,
On Hecla's top to stretch, and give the word
To subject winds that sweep the desert pole.

MLA

Allston, Washington. “On Seeing the Picture of Aeolus, by Pellegrino Tibaldi.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/allston/8/.

Chicago

Allston, Washington. “On Seeing the Picture of Aeolus, by Pellegrino Tibaldi.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/allston/8/.

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