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Washington Irving's
"Rip Van Winkle" (1819) opens with a description of the "Kaatskill"
(today commonly "Catskill") mountains above the Hudson River, a
landscape memorialized by Cole and other painters identified with
the Hudson River School. "Every change of season, every change of
weather, indeed, every hour of the day, produces some change in the
magical hues and shapes of these mountains," Irving writes. On a
journey into the mountains to escape the "terrors" of his wife, Rip
contemplates a scene that reflects the contrast between the sublime
and the beautiful that structured the Romantic landscape tradition:
華盛頓•歐文華盛頓•歐文的《李伯大夢》一書中以對哈得遜河上的"凱茲吉爾"山（現今通稱的「愷茲吉爾」
山）的描繪開場。這個景致因柯爾與其他哈得遜河流派的畫家而不朽。歐文寫道：『每個季節的變化，每個天候的改變，甚至一天裡的每一小時，都會使這些山巒魔幻的色澤與外貌產生變化。』在李伯逃離他夫人的「雌威」而隱遁入山的旅途中，他凝望著一個反映出浪漫主義地景傳統的莊嚴美與優美的景致：
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From an opening between the trees, he
could overlook all the lower country for many a mile
of rich woodland. He saw at a distance the lordly
Hudson, far, far below him, moving on its silent but
majestic course, the reflection of a purple cloud,
or the sail of a lagging bark, here and there
sleeping on its glassy bosom, and at last losing
itself in the blue highlands. (940)
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- Here Burke's
idea of beauty is predominant: the landscape is
agreeable, sociable ("lagging bark" registers a
human presence), pastel-colored ("purple cloud"),
soft and feminized ("sleeping on its glassy bosom").
However, the opposite prospect sends a different
message:
此段文選明顯表現出柏克的美學觀點：那風景是怡人，和善（「緩慢的舟帆」顯示人的存在），
色彩柔和（「紫色的雲」），溫和而陰柔的（「在它平靜如鏡的懷抱裡沈睡」）。然而，
另一邊的景色卻傳達了不同的訊息：
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On the other
side he looked down into a deep mountain glen, wild,
lonely and shagged, the bottom filled with fragments
from the impending cliffs, and scarcely lighted by
the reflected rays of the setting sun. For some time
Rip lay musing on this scene, evening was gradually
advancing, the mountains began to throw their long
blue shadows over the valleys, he saw that it would
be dark long before he could reach the village, and
he heaved a heavy sigh when he thought of
encountering the terrors of Dame Van Winkle. (Norton
1: 941)
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"[D]eep,"
"wild," "lonely," "shagged," and "scarcely lighted,"
followed quickly by the "terrors of Dame Van
Winkle," are code words for the Burkean sublime,
which connotes harsh, antisocial, threatening, and
obscure feelings. In fact, the scene forms a sublime
picture for Rip as well as the reader, insofar as it
follows Burke's rule that only representation, not
reality, can be sublime. At a comfortable remove,
Rip can enjoy "musing on this scene," without facing
directly the domestic terrors that appear to be its
underlying association.
「深沈」、「狂野」、「孤寂」、「崎嶇」、「略被照亮的」，以及後來很快出現的「李伯夫人的雌威」等詞語 ，
都是柏克派的莊嚴美的關鍵詞彙，暗示的是一種嚴厲，與社會格格不入，威迫，意圖不明的感覺。
其實，這景致不止為李伯也為讀者營造出一幅具莊嚴美的圖畫，而且它遵循柏克的只有呈現出的景象，
而非真實世界的景象，才能算是莊嚴美的法則。因為有所距離，李伯得以安然"領略這景致"，而不必
直接面對這景色所暗示的家裡恐怖河東獅吼的聯想。
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