ABSTRACT
192In my estimation, by far the most important event of that winter, was the publication of Sir Walter Scott’s “Marmion,” in which, with all due respect for the author’s powers of invention and narrative, my attention was riveted, not by the story, but by the six preliminary epistles. And so it has been with me through life. In all poems of length, whether epic or didactic, the passages that dwell on my remembrance are exclusively those which record feelings connected with the phenomena of Nature, with woods, mountains, lakes, and rivers, and the variety of the seasons’ influence. For example, 193the description of moonlight, which occurs somewhere in the Iliad, supersedes, in my recollection, all the rest of the work. Certainly, among those poets who were, or affected to be, men of the world, there are few, if any, whose works afford more frequent passages than those of Scott, proving how observant the author had been, in solitude, of the scenery around him. Accept one of the very shortest examples:— “Like April morning clouds that pass With varying shadow o’er the grass, And imitate on field and furrow Life’s chequered scene of joy and sorrow.”
