Poem by Washington Allston

Sonnet. On Rembrant; occasioned by his Picture of Jacob's Dream

AS in that twilight, superstitious age
When all beyond the narrow grasp of mind
Seem'd fraught with meanings of supernal kind,
When e'en the learned philosophic sage,
Wont with the stars thro' boundless space to range,
Listen'd with rev'rence to the changeling's tale;
E'en so, thou strangest of all beings strange!
E'en so thy visionary scenes I hail;
That like the ramblings of an idiot's speech,
No image giving of a thing on earth,
Nor thought significant in Reason's reach,
Yet in their random shadowings give birth
To thoughts and things from other worlds that come,
And fill the soul, and strike the reason dumb. 

1. Sonnet. On seeing the Picture of Æolus by Peligrino Tibaldi, in the Institute at Bologna
2. Sonnet. To My Venerable Friend, the President of the Royal Academy
3. Sonnet. On the Group of the Three Angels before the Tent of Abraham, by Raffaelle, in the Vatican
4. Myrtilla
5. Sonnet. On a Falling Group in the Last Judgement of Michael Angelo, in the Cappella Sistina

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