Note 216 — No. XXIII.
Reading edition
Ver. 68. Listening ears—Listening, and therefore peculiarly suited to a pair of diamond ear-rings. See the description of Nebuchadnezzar in his transformed state—
“Nor flattery’s self can pierce his pendent ears”.
In poetical diction, a person is said to “breathe the BLUE air,” and to “drink the HOARSE wave!”—not that the colour of the sky or the noise of the water has any reference to drinking or breathing, but because the poet obtains the advantage of thus describing his subject under a double relation, in the same manner in which material objects present themselves to our different senses at the same time.