| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | II. On a Landscape, by Backhuysen | | By Henry Theodore Tuckerman (1813–1871) |
| | | NOT for the eye alone are here outspread | |
| Skies, fields, and herds in such divine repose; | |
| The soul of beauty that to these is wed | |
| Through the fair landscape tremulously glows! | |
| We seem to feel the meadow’s grateful air, | 5 |
| Hear the low breathing of the dreamy kine, | |
| And the pure fragrance of the harvest share, | |
| Until our hearts all cold distrust resign, | |
| Feeling once more to truth and love allied; | |
| And, while the fresh tranquillity we view, | 10 |
| Each good they have foretold and life denied, | |
| Hope’s sweetest promises again renew; | |
| As if the twilight angel hovered there, | |
| To waft from nature’s rest a balm for human care. | | | | |
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