



Produced by Ritu Aggarwal, Thanks to the National Library
of Australia and the Thomas Cooper Library (University of
South Carolina) for supplying pages for this work, and the
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                               EIDOLON,
                       OR THE COURSE OF A SOUL;
                           AND OTHER POEMS,

                         BY WALTER R. CASSELS


                                LONDON
                          WILLIAM PICKERING
                                 1850


                                  TO
                            CHARLES PEEL,

                     THIS VOLUME IS INSCRIBED BY
                             HIS FRIEND,

                                      W. R. CASSELS.




                              CONTENTS.


                                                                Page
  Eidolon                                                          1
  Alceste                                                         93
  Pygmalion                                                      136

                         MISCELLANEOUS POEMS.
  Ode to Fancy                                                   159
  What is a sigh?                                                165
  Ione                                                           167
  Reality                                                        169
  Retrospection                                                  172
  The Stormy Petrel                                              181
  To ----                                                        183
  The Mermaid                                                    185
  The Spirit of the Air                                          190
  Why do I love thee?                                            195
  Lady Annabel                                                   196
  To Jenny Lind                                                  201
  The Gold Seekers                                               204
  To Woman                                                       209
  The Poet                                                       212
  Evening                                                        224
  Life                                                           226
  Sorrow                                                         229

                               SONNETS.
  I. Written at Ulleswater                                       233
  II. "There is a spell by which the panting soul"               234
  III. "We wander on through life as pilgrims do"                235
  IV. "Sweet spirits of the Beautiful! where'er ye dwell,"       236
  V. "We are ambitious overmuch in life,"                        237
  VI. "Mountains! and huge hills! wrap your mighty forms"        238
  VII. To Ella                                                   239
  VIII. "I traverse oft in thought the battle-plain"             240




INTRODUCTION TO EIDOLON.


Hazlitt says, one cannot "make an allegory go on all fours," it must
to a certain degree be obscure and shadowy, like the images which the
traveller in the desert sees mirrored on the heavens, wherein he can
trace but a dreamy resemblance to the reality beneath. It therefore
seems to me advisable to give a solution of the "Eidolon," the symbol,
which follows, that the purpose of the poem may at once be evident.

In "Eidolon" I have attempted to symbol the course of a Poet's mind
from a state wherein thought is disordered, barren and uncultivated,
to that which is ordered and swayed by the true Spirit of Poetry, and
holds its perfect creed.

I have therefore laid the scene on a desert island, whence, as from
the isolation of his own mind, he reflects upon the concerns of life.
At first he is a poet only by birthright '_Poeta nascitur_.' He has
the poet's inherent love for the Beautiful, his keen susceptibility of
all that is lovely in outward nature, but these are only the blossoms
which have fallen upon him from the Tree of Life, the fruit is yet
untasted. He has looked at the evil of the world alone, and seeing how
much "the time is out of joint" has become misanthropic, and turns his
back alike on the evil and the good.

Then comes Night, the stillness of the soul, with starlight breaking
through the gloom. He gazes on other worlds, and pictures there the
perfection he sighs for, but cannot find in this. Thus by the
conception of a higher and nobler existence acquiring some impetus
towards its realization.

We then find him lying in the sunshine with the beauties of Nature
around him, whose silent teaching works upon him till the true SPIRIT
OF POETRY speaks _within his soul_, and combats the misanthropy and
weakness of the sensuous MAN, showing him that Action is the end of
Life, not mere indulgence in abstract and visionary rhapsodies.

In the next scene he makes further advances, for the spirit of Poetry
shows him that the beauty for which he has sought amongst the stars of
heaven lies really at his feet; that Earth, too, is a star capable of
equal brightness with those on which he gazes. He is thus brought from
the Ideal to the Real.

The fifth scene emblems the influence of Love on the soul. It is the
nurse of Poetry, and Sorrow is the pang which stimulates the divine
germ into active vitality. Had he been entirely happy, and the course
