Poem by Washington Allston

Sonnet. On the Luxembourg Gallery

There is a Charm no vulgar mind can reach.
No critick thwart, no mighty master teach;
A Charm how mingled of the good and ill!
Yet still so mingled that the mystick whole
Shall captive hold the struggling Gazer's will,
'Till vanquish'd reason own its full control.
And such, oh Rubens, thy mysterious art,
The charm that vexes, yet enslaves the heart!
Thy lawless style, from timid systems free,
Impetuous rolling like a troubled sea,
High o'er the rocks of reason's lofty verge
Impending hangs; yet, ere the foaming surge
Breaks o'er the bound, the refluent ebb of taste
Back from the shore impels the wat'ry waste.

1. Myrtilla
2. Sonnet. On the Group of the Three Angels before the Tent of Abraham, by Raffaelle, in the Vatican
3. The Paint-Kings
4. Sonnet. On seeing the Picture of Æolus by Peligrino Tibaldi, in the Institute at Bologna
5. To a Lady Who Spoke Slightingly of Poets

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