Irving, Washington / 2008-06-18 00:00:00
1819-20
THE SKETCH BOOK
A ROYAL POET
by Washington Irving
Though your body be confined,
And soft love a prisoner bound,
Yet the beauty of your mind
Neither check nor chain hath found.
Look out nobly, then, and dare
Even the fetters that you wear.
FLETCHER.
ON A soft sunny morning in the genial month of May, I made an
excursion to Windsor Castle. It is a place full of storied and
poetical associations. The very external aspect of the proud old
pile is enough to inspire high thought. It rears its irregular walls
and massive towers, like a mural crown, round the brow of a lofty
ridge, waves its royal banner in the clouds, and looks down, with a
lordly air, upon the surrounding world.
On this morning the weather was of that voluptuous vernal kind,
which calls forth all the latent romance of a man's temperament,
filling his mind with music, and disposing him to quote poetry and
dream of beauty.
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