{"id":2813,"date":"2016-09-05T12:22:18","date_gmt":"2016-09-05T16:22:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/?p=2813"},"modified":"2016-12-31T15:29:22","modified_gmt":"2016-12-31T20:29:22","slug":"delta-the-improvisatrice-forget-me-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/?p=2813","title":{"rendered":"Delta [D. L. Moir], “The Improvisatrice” (Forget Me Not<\/i>)"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n
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Performer Name:<\/dt>\n
 <\/dd>\n
Performance Venue:<\/dt>\n
 <\/dd>\n
Performance Date:<\/dt>\n
 <\/dd>\n
Author:<\/dt>\n
Delta [D. L. Moir]<\/dd>\n
Date Written:<\/dt>\n
1829<\/dd>\n
Language:<\/dt>\n
English<\/dd>\n
Publication Title:<\/dt>\n
Forget Me Not<\/dd>\n
Article Title:<\/dt>\n
The Improvisatrice<\/dd>\n
Page Numbers:<\/dt>\n
273-76<\/dd>\n
Additional Info:<\/dt>\n
Ed. Frederic Shoberl<\/dd>\n
Publisher:<\/dt>\n
R. Ackermann & Co.<\/dd>\n
Place of Publication:<\/dt>\n
London<\/dd>\n
Date Published:<\/dt>\n
1830<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

Text:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n
\r\n[273] Beside her cottage door she sat and sang,\r\n     That gentle creature with her deep black eyes,\r\nAs if her heart of grief ne\u2019er own\u2019d a pang,\r\n     And her young breast was sunny as her skies;\r\nThe ripe rich grapes hung clustering round her head,\r\nAnd rosiers, by her side, sweet perfume shed.\r\n\r\nA poetess in spirit, by the touch\r\n     Of Nature framed, she needed not the rules\r\nOf pedants, sophists, dogmatists, and such;\r\n     Art\u2019s trickery, or the doctrines of the schools:\r\nThe glow was at her soul, and so she sung,\r\nLife in her words, and heart upon her tongue.\r\n\r\nHer theme was love — of quiet summer eves,\r\n     And shepherds piping in the pastoral dale;\r\nAs with a throbbing heart, beneath the leaves\r\n     Of the green elms, the lover breathed his tale,\r\nAnd she, his idol, from her amorous arms,\r\nHalf-pain\u2019d, half-pleas\u2019d. withdrew her conquering charms.\r\n\r\nOf Tasso and his passion deep she told,\r\n     His inspiration, frenzy, and despair;\r\nAnd how, through lonesome years, amid the mould\r\n     Of dungeon cells, his Leonora fair\r\nRose in her beauty on his tranced sight,\r\nLike eve\u2019s one star \u2018mid winter\u2019s gathering night.\r\n\r\n[274] And then to mild Petrarcha changed the theme,\r\n     And to Vaucluse\u2019s woodland greenery bright, — \r\nLaura his daylight idol, and the dream\r\n     Of his mild spirit through each watch of night;\r\nTime purifying still his ardours high,\r\nTill Passion\u2019s self became Philosophy.\r\n\r\nAnon she sang of battle, and the breath\r\n     Of Slaughter tainting Heaven\u2019s salubrious gale — \r\nHouseholds laid prostrate by the leveller Death,\r\n     And orphans desolate, and widows pale — \r\nAnguish imploring Rapine, deaf to hear —\r\nLife-withering Famine, and sepulchral Fear!\r\n\r\nThe wars of fierce and fiery Tamerlane\r\n     She sang; and how it soothed his savage rage\r\nTo pluck, in daily hate, the humbling chain,\r\n     Which knit proud Bajazet to his iron cage,\r\nUntil, beneath Scorn\u2019s unrelenting yoke,\r\nHis hopes forsook him, and his heart was broke.\r\n\r\nThen Peter\u2019s praise she hymn\u2019d, who o\u2019er the rude\r\n     And darken\u2019d Russ shed civilizing light,\r\nTriumphant in the van of battle stood,\r\n     And vanquish\u2019d Charles at red Pultowa\u2019s fight. —\r\nSymphonious with her voice, the rich guitar\r\n     Calm\u2019d into peace, or kindled into war.\r\n\r\n[275] Anon the varied charms of Nature\u2019s face\r\n     Would lend a syren witchery to her song,\r\nAs she the lovely lineaments would trace\r\n     Of amaranthine isles, to which belong\r\nPerennial endless summer, and man\u2019s life,\r\nUnpoison\u2019d by Ambition, knows not strife.\r\n\r\nStraight to the wintry waste of polar seas\r\n     Th\u2019enchantress bore with her the soul astray,\r\nWhere scowl\u2019d the iceberg, and the sleety breeze\r\n     Drifted from howling cubs the bear away,\r\nAnd fur-clad natives, housed in caverns drear,\r\nSlept through the night which darken\u2019d half the year.\r\n\r\nThe Passions at her bidding throng\u2019d around — \r\n     Hope, with her bright blue eyes and golden hair;\r\nTeeth-gnashing Hate; Remorse that bit the ground;\r\n     Yellow-brow\u2019d Jealousy, and fierce Despair; —\r\nThe Spirits met and mix\u2019d; and, from the strife,\r\nShe drew that pictured chaos, human life.\r\n\r\nGaze on that face — \u2018tis fair and feminine;\r\n      Yet, in the mirror of those pensive eyes,\r\nWhose lustre rather seems to speak than shine,\r\n      A fathomless abyss of passion lies:\r\nEarth is to her a spectral vision bright,\r\nFlashing with sunshine, or begrimed with night.\r\n\r\n[276] \u2018Tis past! — and art thou but a brilliant dream\r\n     On which I gaze — a something, by the power\r\nOf Genius conjured from the shapes that teem\r\n     In the mind\u2019s eye, through Inspiration\u2019s hour? — \r\nEven as I gaze, the warm illusions fade\r\nInto a silent scene, an empty shade.\r\n\r\nBare canvas, and the solitary gloom\r\n     Of a dim studio — there the Painter stands,\r\nBidding each nice and tender touch illume\r\n     The scene, till beauty on the sight expands;\r\nAnd lo! the marvel which creative Art\r\nGifts in its high perfection to the heart!\r\n\r\nYes! such was the illusion, and so bright\r\n     The poetess of Nature, which the power\r\nOf genius conjured to the Painter\u2019s sight,\r\n     In Contemplation\u2019s meditative hour, — \r\nThe siren shape in Memory\u2019s love enshrined,\r\nWhich Bone to beauty drew, and Romney lined.\r\n<\/pre>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Notes:<\/strong><\/p>\n
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 <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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Collected by:<\/dt>\n
 EW<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Delta’s poem describes an improvisatrice and the fancies she is able to call forth in her state of inspiration. The glory of these images however turns out to be mere illusion once the performance has ended. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,134],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2813"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2813"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2815,"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2813\/revisions\/2815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/romanticimprov.utoronto.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}