THE POETICAL WORKS OF WILLIAM WORDSWORTH, VOL. 8 (Completed)

TO LUCCA GIORDANO [305]

Composed 1846.--Published 1850

One of the "Evening Voluntaries."--ED.

Giordano, verily thy Pencil's skill

Hath here portrayed with Nature's happiest grace

The fair Endymion couched on Latmos-hill;

And Dian gazing on the Shepherd's face

In rapture,--yet suspending her embrace,

As not unconscious with what power the thrill

Of her most timid touch his sleep would chase,

And, with his sleep, that beauty calm and still.

O may this work have found its last retreat

Here in a Mountain-bard's secure abode,

One to whom, yet a School-boy, Cynthia showed

A face of love which he in love would greet,

Fixed, by her smile, upon some rocky seat;

Or lured along where green-wood paths he trod.

RYDAL MOUNT, 1846.

[305] Lucca Giordano was born at Naples, in 1629. He was at first a disciple of Spagnaletto, next of Pietro da Cortona; but after coming under the influence of Correggio, he went to Venice, where Titian was his inspiring master. In his own work the influence of all of these predecessors may be traced, but chiefly that of Titian, whose style of colouring and composition he followed so closely that many of his works might be mistaken for those of his greatest master. The picture referred to in this sonnet was brought from Italy by the poet's eldest son.--ED.