Note 74 — Chapter V · ToC
Reading edition
Miss Emily Hickey, the poetess, was inspired by Leighton's picture to write the following lines:—
SOLITUDE
O'er the grey rocks, like monarchs robed and crowned, High tower the firs in swart magnificence, Where, winter after winter, vehemence Of the wild torrent's rush, unstayed, unbound, Hath scooped and worn the rocks till so profound The deep pool's depth that all the gazer's sense Fills with the absolute, dark-brown night intense. The rapid current swirls, but never a sound. By the high grandeur of the silence wooed Into its bond of comradeship, the maid Sits with the quiet on her bosom laid; Not on the great unknowable to brood; Only to wait a while till, unafraid, She see the spirit of the solitude. E.H. Hickey. Oct. 26, '91.