On Rembrandt; Occasioned By His Picture Of Jacob’s Dream
July 6, 2023Art
July 6, 2023On A Falling Group In The Last Judgment Of Michael Angelo, In The Cappella Sisti
How vast, how dread, o’erwhelming, is the thought
Of space interminable! to the soul
A circling weight that crushes into naught
Her mighty faculties! a wondrous whole,
Without or parts, beginning, or an end!
How fearful, then, on desperate wings to send
The fancy e’en amid the waste profound!
Yet, born as if all daring to astound,
Thy giant hand, O Angelo, hath hurled
E’en human forms, with all their mortal weight,
Down the dread void,–fall endless as their fate!
Already now they seem from world to world
For ages thrown; yet doomed, another past,
Another still to reach, nor e’er to reach the last!
Washington Allston
Washington Allston (1779-1843) was an American painter and poet who is best known for his Romantic landscape paintings and his poetry. Allston's most famous works include "The Sylphs of the Seasons" and "America to Great Britain." Allston was also a close friend of the American writer Washington Irving.