Washington Allston (1779-1843). III. On Seeing the Picture of Aeolus, by Pellegrino Tibaldi. Hunt and Lee, comps. 1867. The Book of the Sonnet

Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867.

III. On Seeing the Picture of Æolus, by Pellegrino Tibaldi

By Washington Allston (1779–1843)


FULL well, Tibaldi, did thy kindred mind
The mighty spell of Buonarroti own.
Like one who, reading magic words, receives
The gift of intercourse with worlds unknown,
’T was thine, deciph’ring Nature’s mystic leaves,	5
To hold strange converse with the viewless wind;
To see the spirits, in embodied forms
Of gales and whirlwinds, hurricanes and storms.
For, lo! obedient to thy bidding, teems
Fierce into shape their stern, relentless lord;	10
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.