Poetic Passions

Cowper finished, I turned next to William Collins, and typing up an ode by the name of  "The Passions: An Ode for Music," I was blown away by his imagery. Here's a small snippet — isn't that last line of the excerpt something! You can see how the Romantics (Keats, Shelley, Byron, etc.) are here prefigured — that line also has for me the same kind of impact as Yeats'  "And hid his face amid a cloud of stars" ("When You Are Old").


Caravaggio. Rest on the Flight to Egypt, 1596.

While, as his flying fingers kiss'd the strings,      Love fram'd with Mirth a gay fantastic round:      Loose were her tresses seen, her zone unbound;           And he, amidst his frolic play,           As if he would the charming air repay, Shook thousand odours from his dewy wings. (emphasis added)