Page:The poems of George Eliot (Crowell, 1884).djvu/25



Right in the rays of Jupiter a small man,

In skull-cap bordered close with crisp gray curls,

And loose black gown showing a neck and breast

Protected by a dim-green amulet;

Pale-faced, with finest nostril wont to breathe

Ethereal passion in a world of thought;

Eyebrows jet-black and firm, yet delicate;

Beard scant and grizzled; mouth shut firm, with curves

So subtly turned to meanings exquisite,

You seem to read them as you read a word

Full-vowelled, long-descended, pregnant,—rich

With legacies from long, laborious lives."

Juan's criticism of himself:—

And, assuredly, I must not omit the study of the character of Silva himself:—

"A man of high-wrought strain, fastidious

In his acceptance, dreading all delight

That speedy dies and turns to carrion:

His senses much exacting, deep instilled

With keen imagination's difficult needs;—

Like strong-limbed monsters studded o'er with eyes.

Their hunger checked by overwhelming vision,

Or that fierce lion in symbolic dream

Snatched from the ground by wings and new-endowed

With a man's thought-propelled relenting heart.