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164
Glaucus; Or, The Wonders of the Shore
·
Charles Kingsley
97
“I
do
not
wonder,”
says
Mr.
Gosse,
in
his
charming
“Naturalist’s
Rambles
on
the
Devonshire
Coast”
(p.
187),
“that
when
Southey
had
an
opportunity
of
seeing
some
of
those
beautiful
quiet
basins
hollowed
in
the
living
rock,
and
stocked
with
elegant
plants
and
animals,
having
all
the
charm
of
novelty
to
his
eye,
they
should
have
moved
his
poetic
fancy,
and
found
more
than
one
place
in
the
gorgeous
imagery
of
his
Oriental
romances.
Just
listen
to
him
“It
was
a
garden
still
beyond
all
price,
Even
yet
it
was
a
place
of
paradise;
*
*
*
*
*
*
And
here
were
coral
bowers,
And
grots
of
madrepores,
And
banks
of
sponge,
as
soft
and
fair
to
eye
As
e’er
was
mossy
bed
Whereon
the
wood-nymphs
lie
With
languid
limbs
in
summer’s
sultry
hours.
Here,
too,
were
living
flowers,
Which,
like
a
bud
compacted,
Their
purple
cups
contracted;
And
now
in
open
blossom
spread,
Stretch’d,
like
green
anthers,
many
a
seeking
head.
And
arborets
of
jointed
stone
were
there,
And
plants
of
fibres
fine
as
silkworm’s
thread;
Yea,
beautiful
as
mermaid’s
golden
hair
Upon
the
waves
dispread.
Others
that,
like
the
broad
banana
growing,
Raised
their
long
wrinkled
leaves
of
purple
hue,
Like
streamers
wide
outflowing.’—
Kehama,
xvi.
5.
“A
hundred
times
you
might
fancy
you
saw
the
type,
the
very
original
of
this
description,
tracing,
line
by
line,
and
image
by
image,
the
details
of
the
picture;
and
acknowledging,
as
you
proceed,
the
minute
truthfulness
with
which
it
has
been
drawn.
For
such
is
the
loveliness
of
nature
in
these
secluded
reservoirs,
that
the
accomplished
poet,
when
depicting
the
gorgeous
scenes
of
Eastern
mythology—
scenes
the
wildest
and
most
extravagant
that
imagination
could
paint—
drew
not
upon
the
resources
of
his
prolific
fancy
for
imagery
here,
but
was
well
content
to
jot
down
the
simple
lineaments
of
Nature
as
he
saw
her
in
plain,
homely
England.
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