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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/4798-0.txt b/4798-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0f602d2 --- /dev/null +++ b/4798-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11195 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 4798 *** + + + + +THE COMPLETE +POETICAL WORKS +OF +PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY +VOLUME 2 + +OXFORD EDITION. +INCLUDING MATERIALS NEVER BEFORE +PRINTED IN ANY EDITION OF THE POEMS. + +EDITED WITH TEXTUAL NOTES + +BY +THOMAS HUTCHINSON, M. A. +EDITOR OF THE OXFORD WORDSWORTH. + +1914. + + +CONTENTS. + + +EARLY POEMS [1814, 1815]: + +STANZA, WRITTEN AT BRACKNELL. + +STANZAS.--APRIL, 1814. + +TO HARRIET. + +TO MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT GODWIN. + +TO --. 'YET LOOK ON ME'. + +MUTABILITY. + +ON DEATH. + +A SUMMER EVENING CHURCHYARD. + +TO --. 'OH! THERE ARE SPIRITS OF THE AIR'. + +TO WORDSWORTH. + +FEELINGS OF A REPUBLICAN ON THE FALL OF BONAPARTE + +LINES: 'THE COLD EARTH SLEPT BELOW' + +NOTE ON THE EARLY POEMS, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +POEMS WRITTEN IN 1816: + +THE SUNSET. + +HYMN TO INTELLECTUAL BEAUTY. + +MONT BLANC. + +CANCELLED PASSAGE OF MONT BLANC. + +FRAGMENT: HOME. + +FRAGMENT OF A GHOST STORY. + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1816, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +POEMS WRITTEN IN 1817: + +MARIANNE'S DREAM. + +TO CONSTANTIA, SINGING. + +THE SAME: STANZAS 1 AND 2. + +TO CONSTANTIA. + +FRAGMENT: TO ONE SINGING. + +A FRAGMENT: TO MUSIC. + +ANOTHER FRAGMENT TO MUSIC. + +'MIGHTY EAGLE'. + +TO THE LORD CHANCELLOR. + +TO WILLIAM SHELLEY. + +FROM THE ORIGINAL DRAFT OF THE POEM TO WILLIAM SHELLEY. + +ON FANNY GODWIN. + +LINES: 'THAT TIME IS DEAD FOR EVER'. + +DEATH. + +OTHO. + +FRAGMENTS SUPPOSED TO BE PARTS OF OTHO. + +'O THAT A CHARIOT OF CLOUD WERE MINE'. + +FRAGMENTS: + TO A FRIEND RELEASED FROM PRISON. + SATAN BROKEN LOOSE. + IGNICULUS DESIDERII. + AMOR AETERNUS. + THOUGHTS COME AND GO IN SOLITUDE. + +A HATE-SONG. + +LINES TO A CRITIC. + +OZYMANDIAS. + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1817, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +POEMS WRITTEN IN 1818. + +TO THE NILE. + +PASSAGE OF THE APENNINES. + +THE PAST. + +TO MARY --. + +ON A FADED VIOLET. + +LINES WRITTEN AMONG THE EUGANEAN HILLS. + +SCENE FROM "TASSO". + +SONG FOR "TASSO". + +INVOCATION TO MISERY. + +STANZAS WRITTEN IN DEJECTION, NEAR NAPLES. + +THE WOODMAN AND THE NIGHTINGALE. + +MARENGHI. + +SONNET: 'LIFT NOT THE PAINTED VEIL'. + +FRAGMENTS: + TO BYRON. + APOSTROPHE TO SILENCE. + THE LAKE'S MARGIN. + 'MY HEAD IS WILD WITH WEEPING'. + THE VINE-SHROUD. + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1818, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +POEMS WRITTEN IN 1819: + +LINES WRITTEN DURING THE CASTLEREAGH ADMINISTRATION. + +SONG TO THE MEN OF ENGLAND. + +SIMILES FOR TWO POLITICAL CHARACTERS OF 1819. + +FRAGMENT: TO THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. + +FRAGMENT: 'WHAT MEN GAIN FAIRLY'. + +A NEW NATIONAL ANTHEM. + +SONNET: ENGLAND IN 1819. + +AN ODE WRITTEN OCTOBER, 1819. + +CANCELLED STANZA. + +ODE TO HEAVEN. + +ODE TO THE WEST WIND. + +AN EXHORTATION. + +THE INDIAN SERENADE. + +CANCELLED PASSAGE. + +TO SOPHIA [MISS STACEY]. + +TO WILLIAM SHELLEY, 1. + +TO WILLIAM SHELLEY, 2. + +TO MARY SHELLEY, 1. + +TO MARY SHELLEY, 2. + +ON THE MEDUSA OF LEONARDO DA VINCI. + +LOVE'S PHILOSOPHY. + +FRAGMENT: 'FOLLOW TO THE DEEP WOOD'S WEEDS'. + +THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. + +FRAGMENTS: + LOVE THE UNIVERSE TO-DAY. + 'A GENTLE STORY OF TWO LOVERS YOUNG'. + LOVE'S TENDER ATMOSPHERE. + WEDDED SOULS. + 'IS IT THAT IN SOME BRIGHTER SPHERE'. + SUFFICIENT UNTO THE DAY. + 'YE GENTLE VISITATIONS OF CALM THOUGHT'. + MUSIC AND SWEET POETRY. + THE SEPULCHRE OF MEMORY. + 'WHEN A LOVER CLASPS HIS FAIREST'. + 'WAKE THE SERPENT NOT'. + RAIN. + A TALE UNTOLD. + TO ITALY. + WINE OF THE FAIRIES. + A ROMAN'S CHAMBER. + ROME AND NATURE. + +VARIATION OF THE SONG OF THE MOON. + +CANCELLED STANZA OF THE MASK OF ANARCHY. + +NOTE BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +POEMS WRITTEN IN 1820: + +THE SENSITIVE PLANT. + +CANCELLED PASSAGE. + +A VISION OF THE SEA. + +THE CLOUD. + +TO A SKYLARK. + +ODE TO LIBERTY. + +CANCELLED PASSAGE. + +TO --. 'I FEAR THY KISSES, GENTLE MAIDEN'. + +ARETHUSA. + +SONG OF PROSERPINE. + +HYMN OF APOLLO. + +HYMN OF PAN. + +THE QUESTION. + +THE TWO SPIRITS. AN ALLEGORY. + +ODE TO NAPLES. + +AUTUMN: A DIRGE. + +THE WANING MOON. + +TO THE MOON. + +DEATH. + +LIBERTY. + +SUMMER AND WINTER. + +THE TOWER OF FAMINE. + +AN ALLEGORY. + +THE WORLD'S WANDERERS. + +SONNET: 'YE HASTEN TO THE GRAVE!'. + +LINES TO A REVIEWER. + +FRAGMENT OF A SATIRE ON SATIRE. + +GOOD-NIGHT. + +BUONA NOTTE. + +ORPHEUS. + +FIORDISPINA. + +TIME LONG PAST. + +FRAGMENTS: + THE DESERTS OF DIM SLEEP. + 'THE VIEWLESS AND INVISIBLE CONSEQUENCE'. + A SERPENT-FACE. + DEATH IN LIFE. + 'SUCH HOPE, AS IS THE SICK DESPAIR OF GOOD'. + 'ALAS THIS IS NOT WHAT I THOUGHT LIFE WAS'. + MILTON'S SPIRIT. + 'UNRISEN SPLENDOUR OF THE BRIGHTEST SUN'. + PATER OMNIPOTENS. + TO THE MIND OF MAN. + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1820, BY MRS SHELLEY. + +POEMS WRITTEN IN 1821: + +DIRGE FOR THE YEAR. + +TO NIGHT. + +TIME. + +LINES: 'FAR, FAR AWAY'. + +FROM THE ARABIC: AN IMITATION. + +TO EMILIA VIVIANI. + +THE FUGITIVES. + +TO --. 'MUSIC, WHEN SOFT VOICES DIE'. + +SONG: 'RARELY, RARELY, COMEST THOU'. + +MUTABILITY. + +LINES WRITTEN ON HEARING THE NEWS OF THE DEATH OF NAPOLEON. + +SONNET: POLITICAL GREATNESS. + +THE AZIOLA. + +A LAMENT. + +REMEMBRANCE. + +TO EDWARD WILLIAMS. + +TO --. 'ONE WORD IS TOO OFTEN PROFANED'. + +TO --. 'WHEN PASSION'S TRANCE IS OVERPAST'. + +A BRIDAL SONG. + +EPITHALAMIUM. + +ANOTHER VERSION OF THE SAME. + +LOVE, HOPE, DESIRE, AND FEAR. + +FRAGMENTS WRITTEN FOR "HELLAS". + +FRAGMENT: 'I WOULD NOT BE A KING'. + +GINEVRA. + +EVENING: PONTE AL MARE, PISA. + +THE BOAT ON THE SERCHIO. + +MUSIC. + +SONNET TO BYRON. + +FRAGMENT ON KEATS. + +FRAGMENT: 'METHOUGHT I WAS A BILLOW IN THE CROWD'. + +TO-MORROW. + +STANZA: 'IF I WALK IN AUTUMN'S EVEN'. + +FRAGMENTS: + A WANDERER. + LIFE ROUNDED WITH SLEEP. + 'I FAINT, I PERISH WITH MY LOVE'. + THE LADY OF THE SOUTH. + ZEPHYRUS THE AWAKENER. + RAIN. + 'WHEN SOFT WINDS AND SUNNY SKIES'. + 'AND THAT I WALK THUS PROUDLY CROWNED'. + 'THE RUDE WIND IS SINGING'. + 'GREAT SPIRIT'. + 'O THOU IMMORTAL DEITY'. + THE FALSE LAUREL AND THE TRUE. + MAY THE LIMNER. + BEAUTY'S HALO. + 'THE DEATH KNELL IS RINGING'. + 'I STOOD UPON A HEAVEN-CLEAVING TURRET'. + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1821, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +POEMS WRITTEN IN 1822: + +THE ZUCCA. + +THE MAGNETIC LADY TO HER PATIENT. + +LINES: 'WHEN THE LAMP IS SHATTERED'. + +TO JANE: THE INVITATION. + +TO JANE: THE RECOLLECTION. + +THE PINE FOREST OF THE CASCINE NEAR PISA. + +WITH A GUITAR, TO JANE. + +TO JANE: 'THE KEEN STARS WERE TWINKLING'. + +A DIRGE. + +LINES WRITTEN IN THE BAY OF LERICI. + +LINES: 'WE MEET NOT AS WE PARTED'. + +THE ISLE. + +FRAGMENT: TO THE MOON. + +EPITAPH. + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1822, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + + +*** + + +EARLY POEMS [1814, 1815]. + +[The poems which follow appeared, with a few exceptions, either in the +volumes published from time to time by Shelley himself, or in the +"Posthumous Poems" of 1824, or in the "Poetical Works" of 1839, of +which a second and enlarged edition was published by Mrs. Shelley in +the same year. A few made their first appearance in some fugitive +publication--such as Leigh Hunt's "Literary Pocket-Book"--and were +subsequently incorporated in the collective editions. In every case the +editio princeps and (where this is possible) the exact date of +composition are indicated below the title.] + +*** + + +STANZA, WRITTEN AT BRACKNELL. + +[Composed March, 1814. Published in Hogg's "Life of Shelley", 1858.] + +Thy dewy looks sink in my breast; +Thy gentle words stir poison there; +Thou hast disturbed the only rest +That was the portion of despair! +Subdued to Duty's hard control, _5 +I could have borne my wayward lot: +The chains that bind this ruined soul +Had cankered then--but crushed it not. + +*** + + +STANZAS.--APRIL, 1814. + +[Composed at Bracknell, April, 1814. Published with "Alastor", 1816.] + +Away! the moor is dark beneath the moon, +Rapid clouds have drank the last pale beam of even: +Away! the gathering winds will call the darkness soon, +And profoundest midnight shroud the serene lights of heaven. + +Pause not! The time is past! Every voice cries, Away! _5 +Tempt not with one last tear thy friend's ungentle mood: +Thy lover's eye, so glazed and cold, dares not entreat thy stay: +Duty and dereliction guide thee back to solitude. + +Away, away! to thy sad and silent home; +Pour bitter tears on its desolated hearth; _10 +Watch the dim shades as like ghosts they go and come, +And complicate strange webs of melancholy mirth. + +The leaves of wasted autumn woods shall float around thine head: +The blooms of dewy spring shall gleam beneath thy feet: +But thy soul or this world must fade in the frost that binds the dead, _15 +Ere midnight's frown and morning's smile, ere thou and peace may meet. + +The cloud shadows of midnight possess their own repose, +For the weary winds are silent, or the moon is in the deep: +Some respite to its turbulence unresting ocean knows; +Whatever moves, or toils, or grieves, hath its appointed sleep. _20 + +Thou in the grave shalt rest--yet till the phantoms flee +Which that house and heath and garden made dear to thee erewhile, +Thy remembrance, and repentance, and deep musings are not free +From the music of two voices and the light of one sweet smile. + +NOTE: +_6 tear 1816; glance 1839. + +*** + + +TO HARRIET. + +[Composed May, 1814. Published (from the Esdaile manuscript) by Dowden, +"Life of Shelley", 1887.] + +Thy look of love has power to calm +The stormiest passion of my soul; +Thy gentle words are drops of balm +In life's too bitter bowl; +No grief is mine, but that alone _5 +These choicest blessings I have known. + +Harriet! if all who long to live +In the warm sunshine of thine eye, +That price beyond all pain must give,-- +Beneath thy scorn to die; _10 +Then hear thy chosen own too late +His heart most worthy of thy hate. + +Be thou, then, one among mankind +Whose heart is harder not for state, +Thou only virtuous, gentle, kind, _15 +Amid a world of hate; +And by a slight endurance seal +A fellow-being's lasting weal. + +For pale with anguish is his cheek, +His breath comes fast, his eyes are dim, _20 +Thy name is struggling ere he speak, +Weak is each trembling limb; +In mercy let him not endure +The misery of a fatal cure. + +Oh, trust for once no erring guide! _25 +Bid the remorseless feeling flee; +'Tis malice, 'tis revenge, 'tis pride, +'Tis anything but thee; +Oh, deign a nobler pride to prove, +And pity if thou canst not love. _30 + +*** + + +TO MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT GODWIN. + +[Composed June, 1814. Published in "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +1. +Mine eyes were dim with tears unshed; +Yes, I was firm--thus wert not thou;-- +My baffled looks did fear yet dread +To meet thy looks--I could not know +How anxiously they sought to shine _5 +With soothing pity upon mine. + +2. +To sit and curb the soul's mute rage +Which preys upon itself alone; +To curse the life which is the cage +Of fettered grief that dares not groan, _10 +Hiding from many a careless eye +The scorned load of agony. + +3. +Whilst thou alone, then not regarded, +The ... thou alone should be, +To spend years thus, and be rewarded, _15 +As thou, sweet love, requited me +When none were near--Oh! I did wake +From torture for that moment's sake. + +4. +Upon my heart thy accents sweet +Of peace and pity fell like dew _20 +On flowers half dead;--thy lips did meet +Mine tremblingly; thy dark eyes threw +Their soft persuasion on my brain, +Charming away its dream of pain. + +5. +We are not happy, sweet! our state _25 +Is strange and full of doubt and fear; +More need of words that ills abate;-- +Reserve or censure come not near +Our sacred friendship, lest there be +No solace left for thee and me. _30 + +6. +Gentle and good and mild thou art, +Nor can I live if thou appear +Aught but thyself, or turn thine heart +Away from me, or stoop to wear +The mask of scorn, although it be _35 +To hide the love thou feel'st for me. + +NOTES: +_2 wert 1839; did 1824. +_3 fear 1824, 1839; yearn cj. Rossetti. +_23 Their 1839; thy 1824. +_30 thee]thou 1824, 1839. +_32 can I 1839; I can 1824. +_36 feel'st 1839; feel 1824. + +*** + +TO --. + +[Published in "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition. See Editor's Note.] + +Yet look on me--take not thine eyes away, +Which feed upon the love within mine own, +Which is indeed but the reflected ray +Of thine own beauty from my spirit thrown. +Yet speak to me--thy voice is as the tone _5 +Of my heart's echo, and I think I hear +That thou yet lovest me; yet thou alone +Like one before a mirror, without care +Of aught but thine own features, imaged there; + +And yet I wear out life in watching thee; _10 +A toil so sweet at times, and thou indeed +Art kind when I am sick, and pity me... + +*** + + +MUTABILITY. + +[Published with "Alastor", 1816.] + +We are as clouds that veil the midnight moon; +How restlessly they speed, and gleam, and quiver, +Streaking the darkness radiantly!--yet soon +Night closes round, and they are lost for ever: + +Or like forgotten lyres, whose dissonant strings _5 +Give various response to each varying blast, +To whose frail frame no second motion brings +One mood or modulation like the last. + +We rest.--A dream has power to poison sleep; +We rise.--One wandering thought pollutes the day; _10 +We feel, conceive or reason, laugh or weep; +Embrace fond woe, or cast our cares away: + +It is the same!--For, be it joy or sorrow, +The path of its departure still is free: +Man's yesterday may ne'er be like his morrow; _15 +Nought may endure but Mutability. + +NOTES: +_15 may 1816; can Lodore, chapter 49, 1835 (Mrs. Shelley). +_16 Nought may endure but 1816; + Nor aught endure save Lodore, chapter 49, 1835 (Mrs. Shelley). + +*** + + +ON DEATH. + +[For the date of composition see Editor's Note. +Published with "Alastor", 1816.] + +THERE IS NO WORK, NOR DEVICE, NOR KNOWLEDGE, NOR WISDOM, +IN THE GRAVE, WHITHER THOU GOEST.--Ecclesiastes. + +The pale, the cold, and the moony smile +Which the meteor beam of a starless night +Sheds on a lonely and sea-girt isle, +Ere the dawning of morn's undoubted light, +Is the flame of life so fickle and wan +That flits round our steps till their strength is gone. _5 + +O man! hold thee on in courage of soul +Through the stormy shades of thy worldly way, +And the billows of cloud that around thee roll +Shall sleep in the light of a wondrous day, _10 +Where Hell and Heaven shall leave thee free +To the universe of destiny. + +This world is the nurse of all we know, +This world is the mother of all we feel, +And the coming of death is a fearful blow _15 +To a brain unencompassed with nerves of steel; +When all that we know, or feel, or see, +Shall pass like an unreal mystery. + +The secret things of the grave are there, +Where all but this frame must surely be, _20 +Though the fine-wrought eye and the wondrous ear +No longer will live to hear or to see +All that is great and all that is strange +In the boundless realm of unending change. + +Who telleth a tale of unspeaking death? _25 +Who lifteth the veil of what is to come? +Who painteth the shadows that are beneath +The wide-winding caves of the peopled tomb? +Or uniteth the hopes of what shall be +With the fears and the love for that which we see? _30 + +*** + + +A SUMMER EVENING CHURCHYARD. + +LECHLADE, GLOUCESTERSHIRE. + +[Composed September, 1815. Published with "Alastor", 1816.] + +The wind has swept from the wide atmosphere +Each vapour that obscured the sunset's ray; +And pallid Evening twines its beaming hair +In duskier braids around the languid eyes of Day: +Silence and Twilight, unbeloved of men, _5 +Creep hand in hand from yon obscurest glen. + +They breathe their spells towards the departing day, +Encompassing the earth, air, stars, and sea; +Light, sound, and motion own the potent sway, +Responding to the charm with its own mystery. _10 +The winds are still, or the dry church-tower grass +Knows not their gentle motions as they pass. + +Thou too, aereal Pile! whose pinnacles +Point from one shrine like pyramids of fire, +Obeyest in silence their sweet solemn spells, _15 +Clothing in hues of heaven thy dim and distant spire, +Around whose lessening and invisible height +Gather among the stars the clouds of night. + +The dead are sleeping in their sepulchres: +And, mouldering as they sleep, a thrilling sound, _20 +Half sense, half thought, among the darkness stirs, +Breathed from their wormy beds all living things around, +And mingling with the still night and mute sky +Its awful hush is felt inaudibly. + +Thus solemnized and softened, death is mild _25 +And terrorless as this serenest night: +Here could I hope, like some inquiring child +Sporting on graves, that death did hide from human sight +Sweet secrets, or beside its breathless sleep +That loveliest dreams perpetual watch did keep. _30 + +*** + + +TO --. + +[Published with "Alastor", 1816. See Editor's Note.] + +DAKRTSI DIOISO POTMON 'APOTMON. + +Oh! there are spirits of the air, +And genii of the evening breeze, +And gentle ghosts, with eyes as fair +As star-beams among twilight trees:-- +Such lovely ministers to meet _5 +Oft hast thou turned from men thy lonely feet. + +With mountain winds, and babbling springs, +And moonlight seas, that are the voice +Of these inexplicable things, +Thou didst hold commune, and rejoice _10 +When they did answer thee; but they +Cast, like a worthless boon, thy love away. + +And thou hast sought in starry eyes +Beams that were never meant for thine, +Another's wealth:--tame sacrifice +To a fond faith! still dost thou pine? _15 +Still dost thou hope that greeting hands, +Voice, looks, or lips, may answer thy demands? + +Ah! wherefore didst thou build thine hope +On the false earth's inconstancy? _20 +Did thine own mind afford no scope +Of love, or moving thoughts to thee? +That natural scenes or human smiles +Could steal the power to wind thee in their wiles? + +Yes, all the faithless smiles are fled _25 +Whose falsehood left thee broken-hearted; +The glory of the moon is dead; +Night's ghosts and dreams have now departed; +Thine own soul still is true to thee, +But changed to a foul fiend through misery. _30 + +This fiend, whose ghastly presence ever +Beside thee like thy shadow hangs, +Dream not to chase;--the mad endeavour +Would scourge thee to severer pangs. +Be as thou art. Thy settled fate, +Dark as it is, all change would aggravate. _35 + +NOTES: +_1 of 1816; in 1839. +_8 moonlight 1816; mountain 1839. + +*** + + +TO WORDSWORTH. + +[Published with "Alastor", 1816.] + +Poet of Nature, thou hast wept to know +That things depart which never may return: +Childhood and youth, friendship and love's first glow, +Have fled like sweet dreams, leaving thee to mourn. +These common woes I feel. One loss is mine _5 +Which thou too feel'st, yet I alone deplore. +Thou wert as a lone star, whose light did shine +On some frail bark in winter's midnight roar: +Thou hast like to a rock-built refuge stood +Above the blind and battling multitude: _10 +In honoured poverty thy voice did weave +Songs consecrate to truth and liberty,-- +Deserting these, thou leavest me to grieve, +Thus having been, that thou shouldst cease to be. + +*** + + +FEELINGS OF A REPUBLICAN ON THE FALL OF BONAPARTE. + +[Published with "Alastor", 1816.] + +I hated thee, fallen tyrant! I did groan +To think that a most unambitious slave, +Like thou, shouldst dance and revel on the grave +Of Liberty. Thou mightst have built thy throne +Where it had stood even now: thou didst prefer _5 +A frail and bloody pomp which Time has swept +In fragments towards Oblivion. Massacre, +For this I prayed, would on thy sleep have crept, +Treason and Slavery, Rapine, Fear, and Lust, +And stifled thee, their minister. I know _10 +Too late, since thou and France are in the dust, +That Virtue owns a more eternal foe +Than Force or Fraud: old Custom, legal Crime, +And bloody Faith the foulest birth of Time. + +*** + + +LINES. + +[Published in Hunt's "Literary Pocket-Book", 1823, where it is headed +"November, 1815". Reprinted in the "Posthumous Poems", 1824. See +Editor's Note.] + +1. +The cold earth slept below, +Above the cold sky shone; +And all around, with a chilling sound, +From caves of ice and fields of snow, +The breath of night like death did flow _5 +Beneath the sinking moon. + +2. +The wintry hedge was black, +The green grass was not seen, +The birds did rest on the bare thorn's breast, +Whose roots, beside the pathway track, _10 +Had bound their folds o'er many a crack +Which the frost had made between. + +3. +Thine eyes glowed in the glare +Of the moon's dying light; +As a fen-fire's beam on a sluggish stream _15 +Gleams dimly, so the moon shone there, +And it yellowed the strings of thy raven hair, +That shook in the wind of night. + +4. +The moon made thy lips pale, beloved-- +The wind made thy bosom chill-- _20 +The night did shed on thy dear head +Its frozen dew, and thou didst lie +Where the bitter breath of the naked sky +Might visit thee at will. + +NOTE: +_17 raven 1823; tangled 1824. + +*** + + +NOTE ON THE EARLY POEMS, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +The remainder of Shelley's Poems will be arranged in the order in which +they were written. Of course, mistakes will occur in placing some of +the shorter ones; for, as I have said, many of these were thrown aside, +and I never saw them till I had the misery of looking over his writings +after the hand that traced them was dust; and some were in the hands of +others, and I never saw them till now. The subjects of the poems are +often to me an unerring guide; but on other occasions I can only guess, +by finding them in the pages of the same manuscript book that contains +poems with the date of whose composition I am fully conversant. In the +present arrangement all his poetical translations will be placed +together at the end. + +The loss of his early papers prevents my being able to give any of the +poetry of his boyhood. Of the few I give as "Early Poems", the greater +part were published with "Alastor"; some of them were written +previously, some at the same period. The poem beginning 'Oh, there are +spirits in the air' was addressed in idea to Coleridge, whom he never +knew; and at whose character he could only guess imperfectly, through +his writings, and accounts he heard of him from some who knew him well. +He regarded his change of opinions as rather an act of will than +conviction, and believed that in his inner heart he would be haunted by +what Shelley considered the better and holier aspirations of his youth. +The summer evening that suggested to him the poem written in the +churchyard of Lechlade occurred during his voyage up the Thames in +1815. He had been advised by a physician to live as much as possible in +the open air; and a fortnight of a bright warm July was spent in +tracing the Thames to its source. He never spent a season more +tranquilly than the summer of 1815. He had just recovered from a severe +pulmonary attack; the weather was warm and pleasant. He lived near +Windsor Forest; and his life was spent under its shades or on the +water, meditating subjects for verse. Hitherto, he had chiefly aimed at +extending his political doctrines, and attempted so to do by appeals in +prose essays to the people, exhorting them to claim their rights; but +he had now begun to feel that the time for action was not ripe in +England, and that the pen was the only instrument wherewith to prepare +the way for better things. + +In the scanty journals kept during those years I find a record of the +books that Shelley read during several years. During the years of 1814 +and 1815 the list is extensive. It includes, in Greek, Homer, Hesiod, +Theocritus, the histories of Thucydides and Herodotus, and Diogenes +Laertius. In Latin, Petronius, Suetonius, some of the works of Cicero, +a large proportion of those of Seneca and Livy. In English, Milton's +poems, Wordsworth's "Excursion", Southey's "Madoc" and "Thalaba", Locke +"On the Human Understanding", Bacon's "Novum Organum". In Italian, +Ariosto, Tasso, and Alfieri. In French, the "Reveries d'un Solitaire" +of Rousseau. To these may be added several modern books of travel. He +read few novels. + +*** + + +POEMS WRITTEN IN 1816. + + +THE SUNSET. + +[Written at Bishopsgate, 1816 (spring). Published in full in the +"Posthumous Poems", 1824. Lines 9-20, and 28-42, appeared in Hunt's +"Literary Pocket-Book", 1823, under the titles, respectively, of +"Sunset. From an Unpublished Poem", And "Grief. A Fragment".] + +There late was One within whose subtle being, +As light and wind within some delicate cloud +That fades amid the blue noon's burning sky, +Genius and death contended. None may know +The sweetness of the joy which made his breath _5 +Fail, like the trances of the summer air, +When, with the Lady of his love, who then +First knew the unreserve of mingled being, +He walked along the pathway of a field +Which to the east a hoar wood shadowed o'er, _10 +But to the west was open to the sky. +There now the sun had sunk, but lines of gold +Hung on the ashen clouds, and on the points +Of the far level grass and nodding flowers +And the old dandelion's hoary beard, _15 +And, mingled with the shades of twilight, lay +On the brown massy woods--and in the east +The broad and burning moon lingeringly rose +Between the black trunks of the crowded trees, +While the faint stars were gathering overhead.-- _20 +'Is it not strange, Isabel,' said the youth, +'I never saw the sun? We will walk here +To-morrow; thou shalt look on it with me.' + +That night the youth and lady mingled lay +In love and sleep--but when the morning came _25 +The lady found her lover dead and cold. +Let none believe that God in mercy gave +That stroke. The lady died not, nor grew wild, +But year by year lived on--in truth I think +Her gentleness and patience and sad smiles, _30 +And that she did not die, but lived to tend +Her aged father, were a kind of madness, +If madness 'tis to be unlike the world. +For but to see her were to read the tale +Woven by some subtlest bard, to make hard hearts _35 +Dissolve away in wisdom-working grief;-- +Her eyes were black and lustreless and wan: +Her eyelashes were worn away with tears, +Her lips and cheeks were like things dead--so pale; +Her hands were thin, and through their wandering veins _40 +And weak articulations might be seen +Day's ruddy light. The tomb of thy dead self +Which one vexed ghost inhabits, night and day, +Is all, lost child, that now remains of thee! + +'Inheritor of more than earth can give, _45 +Passionless calm and silence unreproved, +Whether the dead find, oh, not sleep! but rest, +And are the uncomplaining things they seem, +Or live, or drop in the deep sea of Love; +Oh, that like thine, mine epitaph were--Peace!' _50 +This was the only moan she ever made. + +NOTES: +_4 death 1839; youth 1824. +_22 sun? We will walk 1824; sunrise? We will wake cj. Forman. +_37 Her eyes...wan Hunt, 1823; omitted 1824, 1839. +_38 worn 1824; torn 1839. + +*** + + +HYMN TO INTELLECTUAL BEAUTY. + +[Composed, probably, in Switzerland, in the summer of 1816. Published +in Hunt's "Examiner", January 19, 1817, and with "Rosalind and Helen", +1819.] + +1. +The awful shadow of some unseen Power +Floats though unseen among us,--visiting +This various world with as inconstant wing +As summer winds that creep from flower to flower,-- +Like moonbeams that behind some piny mountain shower, _5 +It visits with inconstant glance +Each human heart and countenance; +Like hues and harmonies of evening,-- +Like clouds in starlight widely spread,-- +Like memory of music fled,-- _10 +Like aught that for its grace may be +Dear, and yet dearer for its mystery. + +2. +Spirit of BEAUTY, that dost consecrate +With thine own hues all thou dost shine upon +Of human thought or form,--where art thou gone? _15 +Why dost thou pass away and leave our state, +This dim vast vale of tears, vacant and desolate? +Ask why the sunlight not for ever +Weaves rainbows o'er yon mountain-river, +Why aught should fail and fade that once is shown, _20 +Why fear and dream and death and birth +Cast on the daylight of this earth +Such gloom,--why man has such a scope +For love and hate, despondency and hope? + +3. +No voice from some sublimer world hath ever _25 +To sage or poet these responses given-- +Therefore the names of Demon, Ghost, and Heaven. +Remain the records of their vain endeavour, +Frail spells--whose uttered charm might not avail to sever, +From all we hear and all we see, _30 +Doubt, chance, and mutability. +Thy light alone--like mist o'er mountains driven, +Or music by the night-wind sent +Through strings of some still instrument, +Or moonlight on a midnight stream, _35 +Gives grace and truth to life's unquiet dream. + +4. +Love, Hope, and Self-esteem, like clouds depart +And come, for some uncertain moments lent. +Man were immortal, and omnipotent, +Didst thou, unknown and awful as thou art, _40 +Keep with thy glorious train firm state within his heart. +Thou messenger of sympathies, +That wax and wane in lovers' eyes-- +Thou--that to human thought art nourishment, +Like darkness to a dying flame! _45 +Depart not as thy shadow came +Depart not--lest the grave should be, +Like life and fear, a dark reality. + +5. +While yet a boy I sought for ghosts, and sped +Through many a listening chamber, cave and ruin, _50 +And starlight wood, with fearful steps pursuing +Hopes of high talk with the departed dead. +I called on poisonous names with which our youth is fed; +I was not heard--I saw them not-- +When musing deeply on the lot _55 +Of life, at that sweet time when winds are wooing +All vital things that wake to bring +News of birds and blossoming,-- +Sudden, thy shadow fell on me; +I shrieked, and clasped my hands in ecstasy! _60 + +6. +I vowed that I would dedicate my powers +To thee and thine--have I not kept the vow? +With beating heart and streaming eyes, even now +I call the phantoms of a thousand hours +Each from his voiceless grave: they have in visioned bowers _65 +Of studious zeal or love's delight +Outwatched with me the envious night-- +They know that never joy illumed my brow +Unlinked with hope that thou wouldst free +This world from its dark slavery, _70 +That thou--O awful LOVELINESS, +Wouldst give whate'er these words cannot express. + +7. +The day becomes more solemn and serene +When noon is past--there is a harmony +In autumn, and a lustre in its sky, _75 +Which through the summer is not heard or seen, +As if it could not be, as if it had not been! +Thus let thy power, which like the truth +Of nature on my passive youth +Descended, to my onward life supply _80 +Its calm--to one who worships thee, +And every form containing thee, +Whom, SPIRIT fair, thy spells did bind +To fear himself, and love all human kind. + +NOTES: +_2 among 1819; amongst 1817. +_14 dost 1819; doth 1817. +_21 fear and dream 1819; care and pain Boscombe manuscript. +_37-_48 omitted Boscombe manuscript. +_44 art 1817; are 1819. +_76 or 1819; nor 1839. + +*** + + +MONT BLANC. + +LINES WRITTEN IN THE VALE OF CHAMOUNI. + +[Composed in Switzerland, July, 1816 (see date below). Printed at the +end of the "History of a Six Weeks' Tour" published by Shelley in 1817, +and reprinted with "Posthumous Poems", 1824. Amongst the Boscombe +manuscripts is a draft of this Ode, mainly in pencil, which has been +collated by Dr. Garnett.] + +1. +The everlasting universe of things +Flows through the mind, and rolls its rapid waves, +Now dark--now glittering--now reflecting gloom-- +Now lending splendour, where from secret springs +The source of human thought its tribute brings _5 +Of waters,--with a sound but half its own, +Such as a feeble brook will oft assume +In the wild woods, among the mountains lone, +Where waterfalls around it leap for ever, +Where woods and winds contend, and a vast river _10 +Over its rocks ceaselessly bursts and raves. + +2. +Thus thou, Ravine of Arve--dark, deep Ravine-- +Thou many-coloured, many-voiced vale, +Over whose pines, and crags, and caverns sail +Fast cloud-shadows and sunbeams: awful scene, _15 +Where Power in likeness of the Arve comes down +From the ice-gulfs that gird his secret throne, +Bursting through these dark mountains like the flame +Of lightning through the tempest;--thou dost lie, +Thy giant brood of pines around thee clinging, _20 +Children of elder time, in whose devotion +The chainless winds still come and ever came +To drink their odours, and their mighty swinging +To hear--an old and solemn harmony; +Thine earthly rainbows stretched across the sweep _25 +Of the ethereal waterfall, whose veil +Robes some unsculptured image; the strange sleep +Which when the voices of the desert fail +Wraps all in its own deep eternity;-- +Thy caverns echoing to the Arve's commotion, _30 +A loud, lone sound no other sound can tame; +Thou art pervaded with that ceaseless motion, +Thou art the path of that unresting sound-- +Dizzy Ravine! and when I gaze on thee +I seem as in a trance sublime and strange _35 +To muse on my own separate fantasy, +My own, my human mind, which passively +Now renders and receives fast influencings, +Holding an unremitting interchange +With the clear universe of things around; _40 +One legion of wild thoughts, whose wandering wings +Now float above thy darkness, and now rest +Where that or thou art no unbidden guest, +In the still cave of the witch Poesy, +Seeking among the shadows that pass by _45 +Ghosts of all things that are, some shade of thee, +Some phantom, some faint image; till the breast +From which they fled recalls them, thou art there! + +3. +Some say that gleams of a remoter world +Visit the soul in sleep,--that death is slumber, _50 +And that its shapes the busy thoughts outnumber +Of those who wake and live.--I look on high; +Has some unknown omnipotence unfurled +The veil of life and death? or do I lie +In dream, and does the mightier world of sleep _55 +Spread far around and inaccessibly +Its circles? For the very spirit fails, +Driven like a homeless cloud from steep to steep +That vanishes among the viewless gales! +Far, far above, piercing the infinite sky, _60 +Mont Blanc appears,--still, snowy, and serene-- +Its subject mountains their unearthly forms +Pile around it, ice and rock; broad vales between +Of frozen floods, unfathomable deeps, +Blue as the overhanging heaven, that spread _65 +And wind among the accumulated steeps; +A desert peopled by the storms alone, +Save when the eagle brings some hunter's bone, +And the wolf tracts her there--how hideously +Its shapes are heaped around! rude, bare, and high, _70 +Ghastly, and scarred, and riven.--Is this the scene +Where the old Earthquake-daemon taught her young +Ruin? Were these their toys? or did a sea +Of fire envelope once this silent snow? +None can reply--all seems eternal now. _75 +The wilderness has a mysterious tongue +Which teaches awful doubt, or faith so mild, +So solemn, so serene, that man may be, +But for such faith, with nature reconciled; +Thou hast a voice, great Mountain, to repeal _80 +Large codes of fraud and woe; not understood +By all, but which the wise, and great, and good +Interpret, or make felt, or deeply feel. + +4. +The fields, the lakes, the forests, and the streams, +Ocean, and all the living things that dwell _85 +Within the daedal earth; lightning, and rain, +Earthquake, and fiery flood, and hurricane, +The torpor of the year when feeble dreams +Visit the hidden buds, or dreamless sleep +Holds every future leaf and flower;--the bound _90 +With which from that detested trance they leap; +The works and ways of man, their death and birth, +And that of him and all that his may be; +All things that move and breathe with toil and sound +Are born and die; revolve, subside, and swell. _95 +Power dwells apart in its tranquillity, +Remote, serene, and inaccessible: +And THIS, the naked countenance of earth, +On which I gaze, even these primaeval mountains +Teach the adverting mind. The glaciers creep _100 +Like snakes that watch their prey, from their far fountains, +Slow rolling on; there, many a precipice, +Frost and the Sun in scorn of mortal power +Have piled: dome, pyramid, and pinnacle, +A city of death, distinct with many a tower _105 +And wall impregnable of beaming ice. +Yet not a city, but a flood of ruin +Is there, that from the boundaries of the sky +Rolls its perpetual stream; vast pines are strewing +Its destined path, or in the mangled soil _110 +Branchless and shattered stand; the rocks, drawn down +From yon remotest waste, have overthrown +The limits of the dead and living world, +Never to be reclaimed. The dwelling-place +Of insects, beasts, and birds, becomes its spoil; _115 +Their food and their retreat for ever gone, +So much of life and joy is lost. The race +Of man flies far in dread; his work and dwelling +Vanish, like smoke before the tempest's stream, +And their place is not known. Below, vast caves _120 +Shine in the rushing torrents' restless gleam, +Which from those secret chasms in tumult welling +Meet in the vale, and one majestic River, +The breath and blood of distant lands, for ever +Rolls its loud waters to the ocean waves, _125 +Breathes its swift vapours to the circling air. + +5. +Mont Blanc yet gleams on high--the power is there, +The still and solemn power of many sights, +And many sounds, and much of life and death. +In the calm darkness of the moonless nights, _130 +In the lone glare of day, the snows descend +Upon that Mountain; none beholds them there, +Nor when the flakes burn in the sinking sun, +Or the star-beams dart through them:--Winds contend +Silently there, and heap the snow with breath _135 +Rapid and strong, but silently! Its home +The voiceless lightning in these solitudes +Keeps innocently, and like vapour broods +Over the snow. The secret strength of things +Which governs thought, and to the infinite dome _140 +Of heaven is as a law, inhabits thee! +And what were thou, and earth, and stars, and sea, +If to the human mind's imaginings +Silence and solitude were vacancy? + +July 23, 1816. + +NOTES: +_15 cloud-shadows]cloud shadows 1817; + cloud, shadows 1824; clouds, shadows 1839. +_20 Thy 1824; The 1839. +_53 unfurled]upfurled cj. James Thomson ('B.V.'). +_56 Spread 1824; Speed 1839. +_69 tracks her there 1824; watches her Boscombe manuscript. +_79 But for such 1824; In such a Boscombe manuscript. +_108 boundaries of the sky]boundary of the skies cj. Rossetti + (cf. lines 102, 106). +_121 torrents']torrent's 1817, 1824, 1839. + +*** + + +CANCELLED PASSAGE OF MONT BLANC. + +[Published by Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +There is a voice, not understood by all, +Sent from these desert-caves. It is the roar +Of the rent ice-cliff which the sunbeams call, +Plunging into the vale--it is the blast +Descending on the pines--the torrents pour... _5 + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: HOME. + +[Published by Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +Dear home, thou scene of earliest hopes and joys, +The least of which wronged Memory ever makes +Bitterer than all thine unremembered tears. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT OF A GHOST STORY. + +[Published by Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +A shovel of his ashes took +From the hearth's obscurest nook, +Muttering mysteries as she went. +Helen and Henry knew that Granny +Was as much afraid of Ghosts as any, _5 +And so they followed hard-- +But Helen clung to her brother's arm, +And her own spasm made her shake. + +*** + + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1816, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +Shelley wrote little during this year. The poem entitled "The Sunset" +was written in the spring of the year, while still residing at +Bishopsgate. He spent the summer on the shores of the Lake of Geneva. +The "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty" was conceived during his voyage round +the lake with Lord Byron. He occupied himself during this voyage by +reading the "Nouvelle Heloise" for the first time. The reading it on +the very spot where the scenes are laid added to the interest; and he +was at once surprised and charmed by the passionate eloquence and +earnest enthralling interest that pervade this work. There was +something in the character of Saint-Preux, in his abnegation of self, +and in the worship he paid to Love, that coincided with Shelley's own +disposition; and, though differing in many of the views and shocked by +others, yet the effect of the whole was fascinating and delightful. + +"Mont Blanc" was inspired by a view of that mountain and its +surrounding peaks and valleys, as he lingered on the Bridge of Arve on +his way through the Valley of Chamouni. Shelley makes the following +mention of this poem in his publication of the "History of a Six Weeks' +Tour, and Letters from Switzerland": 'The poem entitled "Mont Blanc" is +written by the author of the two letters from Chamouni and Vevai. It +was composed under the immediate impression of the deep and powerful +feelings excited by the objects which it attempts to describe; and, as +an undisciplined overflowing of the soul, rests its claim to +approbation on an attempt to imitate the untamable wildness and +inaccessible solemnity from which those feelings sprang.' + +This was an eventful year, and less time was given to study than usual. +In the list of his reading I find, in Greek, Theocritus, the +"Prometheus" of Aeschylus, several of Plutarch's "Lives", and the works +of Lucian. In Latin, Lucretius, Pliny's "Letters", the "Annals" and +"Germany" of Tacitus. In French, the "History of the French Revolution" +by Lacretelle. He read for the first time, this year, Montaigne's +"Essays", and regarded them ever after as one of the most delightful +and instructive books in the world. The list is scanty in English +works: Locke's "Essay", "Political Justice", and Coleridge's "Lay +Sermon", form nearly the whole. It was his frequent habit to read aloud +to me in the evening; in this way we read, this year, the New +Testament, "Paradise Lost", Spenser's "Faery Queen", and "Don Quixote". + +*** + + +POEMS WRITTEN IN 1817. + + +MARIANNE'S DREAM. + +[Composed at Marlow, 1817. Published in Hunt's "Literary Pocket-Book", +1819, and reprinted in "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +1. +A pale Dream came to a Lady fair, +And said, A boon, a boon, I pray! +I know the secrets of the air, +And things are lost in the glare of day, +Which I can make the sleeping see, _5 +If they will put their trust in me. + +2. +And thou shalt know of things unknown, +If thou wilt let me rest between +The veiny lids, whose fringe is thrown +Over thine eyes so dark and sheen: _10 +And half in hope, and half in fright, +The Lady closed her eyes so bright. + +3. +At first all deadly shapes were driven +Tumultuously across her sleep, +And o'er the vast cope of bending heaven _15 +All ghastly-visaged clouds did sweep; +And the Lady ever looked to spy +If the golden sun shone forth on high. + +4. +And as towards the east she turned, +She saw aloft in the morning air, _20 +Which now with hues of sunrise burned, +A great black Anchor rising there; +And wherever the Lady turned her eyes, +It hung before her in the skies. + +5. +The sky was blue as the summer sea, _25 +The depths were cloudless overhead, +The air was calm as it could be, +There was no sight or sound of dread, +But that black Anchor floating still +Over the piny eastern hill. _30 + +6. +The Lady grew sick with a weight of fear +To see that Anchor ever hanging, +And veiled her eyes; she then did hear +The sound as of a dim low clanging, +And looked abroad if she might know _35 +Was it aught else, or but the flow +Of the blood in her own veins, to and fro. + +7. +There was a mist in the sunless air, +Which shook as it were with an earthquake's shock, +But the very weeds that blossomed there _40 +Were moveless, and each mighty rock +Stood on its basis steadfastly; +The Anchor was seen no more on high. + +8. +But piled around, with summits hid +In lines of cloud at intervals, _45 +Stood many a mountain pyramid +Among whose everlasting walls +Two mighty cities shone, and ever +Through the red mist their domes did quiver. + +9. +On two dread mountains, from whose crest, _50 +Might seem, the eagle, for her brood, +Would ne'er have hung her dizzy nest, +Those tower-encircled cities stood. +A vision strange such towers to see, +Sculptured and wrought so gorgeously, _55 +Where human art could never be. + +10. +And columns framed of marble white, +And giant fanes, dome over dome +Piled, and triumphant gates, all bright +With workmanship, which could not come _60 +From touch of mortal instrument, +Shot o'er the vales, or lustre lent +From its own shapes magnificent. + +11. +But still the Lady heard that clang +Filling the wide air far away; _65 +And still the mist whose light did hang +Among the mountains shook alway, +So that the Lady's heart beat fast, +As half in joy, and half aghast, +On those high domes her look she cast. _70 + +12. +Sudden, from out that city sprung +A light that made the earth grow red; +Two flames that each with quivering tongue +Licked its high domes, and overhead +Among those mighty towers and fanes _75 +Dropped fire, as a volcano rains +Its sulphurous ruin on the plains. + +13. +And hark! a rush as if the deep +Had burst its bonds; she looked behind +And saw over the western steep _80 +A raging flood descend, and wind +Through that wide vale; she felt no fear, +But said within herself, 'Tis clear +These towers are Nature's own, and she +To save them has sent forth the sea. _85 + +14. +And now those raging billows came +Where that fair Lady sate, and she +Was borne towards the showering flame +By the wild waves heaped tumultuously. +And, on a little plank, the flow _90 +Of the whirlpool bore her to and fro. + +15. +The flames were fiercely vomited +From every tower and every dome, +And dreary light did widely shed +O'er that vast flood's suspended foam, _95 +Beneath the smoke which hung its night +On the stained cope of heaven's light. + +16. +The plank whereon that Lady sate +Was driven through the chasms, about and about, +Between the peaks so desolate _100 +Of the drowning mountains, in and out, +As the thistle-beard on a whirlwind sails-- +While the flood was filling those hollow vales. + +17. +At last her plank an eddy crossed, +And bore her to the city's wall, _105 +Which now the flood had reached almost; +It might the stoutest heart appal +To hear the fire roar and hiss +Through the domes of those mighty palaces. + +18. +The eddy whirled her round and round _110 +Before a gorgeous gate, which stood +Piercing the clouds of smoke which bound +Its aery arch with light like blood; +She looked on that gate of marble clear, +With wonder that extinguished fear. _115 + +19. +For it was filled with sculptures rarest, +Of forms most beautiful and strange, +Like nothing human, but the fairest +Of winged shapes, whose legions range +Throughout the sleep of those that are, _120 +Like this same Lady, good and fair. + +20. +And as she looked, still lovelier grew +Those marble forms;--the sculptor sure +Was a strong spirit, and the hue +Of his own mind did there endure _125 +After the touch, whose power had braided +Such grace, was in some sad change faded. + +21. +She looked, the flames were dim, the flood +Grew tranquil as a woodland river +Winding through hills in solitude; _130 +Those marble shapes then seemed to quiver, +And their fair limbs to float in motion, +Like weeds unfolding in the ocean. + +22. +And their lips moved; one seemed to speak, +When suddenly the mountains cracked, _135 +And through the chasm the flood did break +With an earth-uplifting cataract: +The statues gave a joyous scream, +And on its wings the pale thin Dream +Lifted the Lady from the stream. _140 + +23. +The dizzy flight of that phantom pale +Waked the fair Lady from her sleep, +And she arose, while from the veil +Of her dark eyes the Dream did creep, +And she walked about as one who knew _145 +That sleep has sights as clear and true +As any waking eyes can view. + +NOTES: +_18 golden 1819; gold 1824, 1839. +_28 or 1824; nor 1839. +_62 or]a cj. Rossetti. +_63 its]their cj. Rossetti. +_92 flames cj. Rossetti; waves 1819, 1824, 1839. +_101 mountains 1819; mountain 1824, 1839. +_106 flood]flames cj. James Thomson ('B.V.'). +_120 that 1819, 1824; who 1839. +_135 mountains 1819; mountain 1824, 1839. + +*** + + +TO CONSTANTIA, SINGING. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley in "Posthumous Poems", 1824. Amongst the +Shelley manuscripts at the Bodleian is a chaotic first draft, from +which Mr. Locock ["Examination", etc., 1903, pages 60-62] has, with +patient ingenuity, disengaged a first and a second stanza consistent +with the metrical scheme of stanzas 3 and 4. The two stanzas thus +recovered are printed here immediately below the poem as edited by Mrs. +Shelley. It need hardly be added that Mr. Locock's restored version +cannot, any more than Mrs. Shelley's obviously imperfect one, be +regarded in the light of a final recension.] + +1. +Thus to be lost and thus to sink and die, +Perchance were death indeed!--Constantia, turn! +In thy dark eyes a power like light doth lie, +Even though the sounds which were thy voice, which burn +Between thy lips, are laid to sleep; _5 +Within thy breath, and on thy hair, like odour, it is yet, +And from thy touch like fire doth leap. +Even while I write, my burning cheeks are wet. +Alas, that the torn heart can bleed, but not forget! + +2. +A breathless awe, like the swift change _10 +Unseen, but felt in youthful slumbers, +Wild, sweet, but uncommunicably strange, +Thou breathest now in fast ascending numbers. +The cope of heaven seems rent and cloven +By the enchantment of thy strain, _15 +And on my shoulders wings are woven, +To follow its sublime career +Beyond the mighty moons that wane +Upon the verge of Nature's utmost sphere, +Till the world's shadowy walls are past and disappear. _20 + +3. +Her voice is hovering o'er my soul--it lingers +O'ershadowing it with soft and lulling wings, +The blood and life within those snowy fingers +Teach witchcraft to the instrumental strings. +My brain is wild, my breath comes quick-- _25 +The blood is listening in my frame, +And thronging shadows, fast and thick, +Fall on my overflowing eyes; +My heart is quivering like a flame; +As morning dew, that in the sunbeam dies, _30 +I am dissolved in these consuming ecstasies. + +4. +I have no life, Constantia, now, but thee, +Whilst, like the world-surrounding air, thy song +Flows on, and fills all things with melody.-- +Now is thy voice a tempest swift and strong, _35 +On which, like one in trance upborne, +Secure o'er rocks and waves I sweep, +Rejoicing like a cloud of morn. +Now 'tis the breath of summer night, +Which when the starry waters sleep, +Round western isles, with incense-blossoms bright, _40 +Lingering, suspends my soul in its voluptuous flight. + + +STANZAS 1 AND 2. + +As restored by Mr. C.D. Locock. + +1. +Cease, cease--for such wild lessons madmen learn +Thus to be lost, and thus to sink and die +Perchance were death indeed!--Constantia turn +In thy dark eyes a power like light doth lie +Even though the sounds its voice that were _5 +Between [thy] lips are laid to sleep: +Within thy breath, and on thy hair +Like odour, it is [lingering] yet +And from thy touch like fire doth leap-- +Even while I write, my burning cheeks are wet-- _10 +Alas, that the torn heart can bleed but not forget. + +2. +[A deep and] breathless awe like the swift change +Of dreams unseen but felt in youthful slumbers +Wild sweet yet incommunicably strange +Thou breathest now in fast ascending numbers... _15 + +*** + + +TO CONSTANTIA. +[Dated 1817 by Mrs. Shelley, and printed by her in the "Poetical +Works", 1839, 1st edition. A copy exists amongst the Shelley +manuscripts at the Bodleian. See Mr. C.D. Locock's "Examination", etc., +1903, page 46.] + +1. +The rose that drinks the fountain dew +In the pleasant air of noon, +Grows pale and blue with altered hue-- +In the gaze of the nightly moon; +For the planet of frost, so cold and bright, _5 +Makes it wan with her borrowed light. + +2. +Such is my heart--roses are fair, +And that at best a withered blossom; +But thy false care did idly wear +Its withered leaves in a faithless bosom; _10 +And fed with love, like air and dew, +Its growth-- + +NOTES: +_1 The rose]The red Rose B. +_2 pleasant]fragrant B. +_6 her omitted B. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: TO ONE SINGING. + +[Dated 1817 by Mrs. Shelley, and published in the "Poetical Works", +1839, 1st edition. The manuscript original, by which Mr. Locock has +revised and (by one line) enlarged the text, is amongst the Shelley +manuscripts at the Bodleian. The metre, as Mr. Locock ("Examination", +etc., 1903, page 63) points out, is terza rima.] + +My spirit like a charmed bark doth swim +Upon the liquid waves of thy sweet singing, +Far far away into the regions dim + +Of rapture--as a boat, with swift sails winging +Its way adown some many-winding river, _5 +Speeds through dark forests o'er the waters swinging... + +NOTES: +_3 Far far away B.; Far away 1839. +_6 Speeds...swinging B.; omitted 1839. + +*** + + +A FRAGMENT: TO MUSIC. + +[Published in "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition. +Dated 1817 (Mrs. Shelley).] + +Silver key of the fountain of tears, +Where the spirit drinks till the brain is wild; +Softest grave of a thousand fears, +Where their mother, Care, like a drowsy child, +Is laid asleep in flowers. _5 + +*** + + +ANOTHER FRAGMENT: TO MUSIC. + +[Published in "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition. +Dated 1817 (Mrs. Shelley).] + +No, Music, thou art not the 'food of Love.' +Unless Love feeds upon its own sweet self, +Till it becomes all Music murmurs of. + +*** + + +'MIGHTY EAGLE'. + +SUPPOSED TO BE ADDRESSED TO WILLIAM GODWIN. + +[Published in 1882 ("Poetical Works of P. B. S.") by Mr. H. Buxton +Forman, C.B., by whom it is dated 1817.] + +Mighty eagle! thou that soarest +O'er the misty mountain forest, +And amid the light of morning +Like a cloud of glory hiest, +And when night descends defiest _5 +The embattled tempests' warning! + +*** + + +TO THE LORD CHANCELLOR. + +[Published in part (5-9, 14) by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, +1st edition (without title); in full 2nd edition (with title). Four +transcripts in Mrs. Shelley's hand are extant: two--Leigh Hunt's and +Ch. Cowden Clarke's--described by Forman, and two belonging to Mr. C.W. +Frederickson of Brooklyn, described by Woodberry ["Poetical Works", +Centenary Edition, 3 193-6]. One of the latter (here referred to as Fa) +is corrected in Shelley's autograph. A much-corrected draft in +Shelley's hand is in the Harvard manuscript book.] + +1. +Thy country's curse is on thee, darkest crest +Of that foul, knotted, many-headed worm +Which rends our Mother's bosom--Priestly Pest! +Masked Resurrection of a buried Form! + +2. +Thy country's curse is on thee! Justice sold, _5 +Truth trampled, Nature's landmarks overthrown, +And heaps of fraud-accumulated gold, +Plead, loud as thunder, at Destruction's throne. + +3. +And whilst that sure slow Angel which aye stands +Watching the beck of Mutability _10 +Delays to execute her high commands, +And, though a nation weeps, spares thine and thee, + +4. +Oh, let a father's curse be on thy soul, +And let a daughter's hope be on thy tomb; +Be both, on thy gray head, a leaden cowl _15 +To weigh thee down to thine approaching doom. + +5. +I curse thee by a parent's outraged love, +By hopes long cherished and too lately lost, +By gentle feelings thou couldst never prove, +By griefs which thy stern nature never crossed; _20 + +6. +By those infantine smiles of happy light, +Which were a fire within a stranger's hearth, +Quenched even when kindled, in untimely night +Hiding the promise of a lovely birth: + +7. +By those unpractised accents of young speech, _25 +Which he who is a father thought to frame +To gentlest lore, such as the wisest teach-- +THOU strike the lyre of mind!--oh, grief and shame! + +8. +By all the happy see in children's growth-- +That undeveloped flower of budding years-- _30 +Sweetness and sadness interwoven both, +Source of the sweetest hopes and saddest fears- + +9. +By all the days, under an hireling's care, +Of dull constraint and bitter heaviness,-- +O wretched ye if ever any were,-- _35 +Sadder than orphans, yet not fatherless! + +10. +By the false cant which on their innocent lips +Must hang like poison on an opening bloom, +By the dark creeds which cover with eclipse +Their pathway from the cradle to the tomb-- _40 + +11. +By thy most impious Hell, and all its terror; +By all the grief, the madness, and the guilt +Of thine impostures, which must be their error-- +That sand on which thy crumbling power is built-- + +12. +By thy complicity with lust and hate-- _45 +Thy thirst for tears--thy hunger after gold-- +The ready frauds which ever on thee wait-- +The servile arts in which thou hast grown old-- + +13. +By thy most killing sneer, and by thy smile-- +By all the arts and snares of thy black den, _50 +And--for thou canst outweep the crocodile-- +By thy false tears--those millstones braining men-- + +14. +By all the hate which checks a father's love-- +By all the scorn which kills a father's care-- +By those most impious hands which dared remove _55 +Nature's high bounds--by thee--and by despair-- + +15. +Yes, the despair which bids a father groan, +And cry, 'My children are no longer mine-- +The blood within those veins may be mine own, +But--Tyrant--their polluted souls are thine;-- _60 + +16. +I curse thee--though I hate thee not.--O slave! +If thou couldst quench the earth-consuming Hell +Of which thou art a daemon, on thy grave +This curse should be a blessing. Fare thee well! + +NOTES: +_9 Angel which aye cancelled by Shelley for Fate which ever Fa. +_24 promise of a 1839, 2nd edition; promises of 1839, 1st edition. +_27 lore]love Fa. +_32 and saddest]the saddest Fa. +_36 yet not fatherless! cancelled by Shelley for why not fatherless? Fa. +_41-_44 By...built 'crossed by Shelley and marked dele by Mrs. Shelley' + (Woodberry) Fa. +_50 arts and snares 1839, 1st edition; + snares and arts Harvard Coll. manuscript; + snares and nets Fa.; + acts and snares 1839, 2nd edition. +_59 those]their Fa. + +*** + + +TO WILLIAM SHELLEY. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley (1, 5, 6), "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st +edition; in full, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition. A transcript is +extant in Mrs. Shelley's hand.] + +1. +The billows on the beach are leaping around it, +The bark is weak and frail, +The sea looks black, and the clouds that bound it +Darkly strew the gale. +Come with me, thou delightful child, +Come with me, though the wave is wild, _5 +And the winds are loose, we must not stay, +Or the slaves of the law may rend thee away. + +2. +They have taken thy brother and sister dear, +They have made them unfit for thee; _10 +They have withered the smile and dried the tear +Which should have been sacred to me. +To a blighting faith and a cause of crime +They have bound them slaves in youthly prime, +And they will curse my name and thee _15 +Because we fearless are and free. + +3. +Come thou, beloved as thou art; +Another sleepeth still +Near thy sweet mother's anxious heart, +Which thou with joy shalt fill, _20 +With fairest smiles of wonder thrown +On that which is indeed our own, +And which in distant lands will be +The dearest playmate unto thee. + +4. +Fear not the tyrants will rule for ever, _25 +Or the priests of the evil faith; +They stand on the brink of that raging river, +Whose waves they have tainted with death. +It is fed from the depth of a thousand dells, +Around them it foams and rages and swells; _30 +And their swords and their sceptres I floating see, +Like wrecks on the surge of eternity. + +5. +Rest, rest, and shriek not, thou gentle child! +The rocking of the boat thou fearest, +And the cold spray and the clamour wild?-- _35 +There, sit between us two, thou dearest-- +Me and thy mother--well we know +The storm at which thou tremblest so, +With all its dark and hungry graves, +Less cruel than the savage slaves _40 +Who hunt us o'er these sheltering waves. + +6. +This hour will in thy memory +Be a dream of days forgotten long. +We soon shall dwell by the azure sea +Of serene and golden Italy, +Or Greece, the Mother of the free; _45 +And I will teach thine infant tongue +To call upon those heroes old +In their own language, and will mould +Thy growing spirit in the flame +Of Grecian lore, that by such name _50 +A patriot's birthright thou mayst claim! + +NOTES: +_1 on the beach omitted 1839, 1st edition. +_8 of the law 1839, 1st edition; of law 1839, 2nd edition. +_14 prime transcript; time editions 1839. +_16 fearless are editions 1839; are fearless transcript. +_20 shalt transcript; wilt editions 1839. +_25-_32 Fear...eternity omitted, transcript. + See "Rosalind and Helen", lines 894-901. +_33 and transcript; omitted editions 1839. +_41 us transcript, 1839, 1st edition; thee 1839, 2nd edition. +_42 will in transcript, 1839, 2nd edition; + will sometime in 1839, 1st edition. +_43 long transcript; omitted editions 1839. +_48 those transcript, 1839, 1st edition; their 1839, 2nd edition. + +*** + + +FROM THE ORIGINAL DRAFT OF THE POEM TO WILLIAM SHELLEY. + +[Published in Dr. Garnett's "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +1. +The world is now our dwelling-place; +Where'er the earth one fading trace +Of what was great and free does keep, +That is our home!... +Mild thoughts of man's ungentle race _5 +Shall our contented exile reap; +For who that in some happy place +His own free thoughts can freely chase +By woods and waves can clothe his face +In cynic smiles? Child! we shall weep. _10 + +2. +This lament, +The memory of thy grievous wrong +Will fade... +But genius is omnipotent +To hallow... _15 + +*** + + +ON FANNY GODWIN. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, among the poems of 1817, in "Poetical +Works", 1839, 1st edition.] + +Her voice did quiver as we parted, +Yet knew I not that heart was broken +From which it came, and I departed +Heeding not the words then spoken. +Misery--O Misery, _5 +This world is all too wide for thee. + +*** + + +LINES. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley with the date 'November 5th, 1817,' in +"Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +1. +That time is dead for ever, child! +Drowned, frozen, dead for ever! +We look on the past +And stare aghast +At the spectres wailing, pale and ghast, _5 +Of hopes which thou and I beguiled +To death on life's dark river. + +2. +The stream we gazed on then rolled by; +Its waves are unreturning; +But we yet stand _10 +In a lone land, +Like tombs to mark the memory +Of hopes and fears, which fade and flee +In the light of life's dim morning. + +*** + + +DEATH. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley in "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +1. +They die--the dead return not--Misery +Sits near an open grave and calls them over, +A Youth with hoary hair and haggard eye-- +They are the names of kindred, friend and lover, +Which he so feebly calls--they all are gone-- _5 +Fond wretch, all dead! those vacant names alone, +This most familiar scene, my pain-- +These tombs--alone remain. + +2. +Misery, my sweetest friend--oh, weep no more! +Thou wilt not be consoled--I wonder not! _10 +For I have seen thee from thy dwelling's door +Watch the calm sunset with them, and this spot +Was even as bright and calm, but transitory, +And now thy hopes are gone, thy hair is hoary; +This most familiar scene, my pain-- _15 +These tombs--alone remain. + +NOTE: +_5 calls editions 1839; called 1824. + +*** + + +OTHO. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.] + +1. +Thou wert not, Cassius, and thou couldst not be, +Last of the Romans, though thy memory claim +From Brutus his own glory--and on thee +Rests the full splendour of his sacred fame: +Nor he who dared make the foul tyrant quail _5 +Amid his cowering senate with thy name, +Though thou and he were great--it will avail +To thine own fame that Otho's should not fail. + +2. +'Twill wrong thee not--thou wouldst, if thou couldst feel, +Abjure such envious fame--great Otho died _10 +Like thee--he sanctified his country's steel, +At once the tyrant and tyrannicide, +In his own blood--a deed it was to bring +Tears from all men--though full of gentle pride, +Such pride as from impetuous love may spring, _15 +That will not be refused its offering. + +NOTE: +_13 bring cj. Garnett; buy 1839, 1st edition; wring cj. Rossetti. + +*** + + +FRAGMENTS SUPPOSED TO BE PARTS OF OTHO. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862,--where, however, +only the fragment numbered 2 is assigned to "Otho". Forman (1876) +connects all three fragments with that projected poem.] + +1. +Those whom nor power, nor lying faith, nor toil, +Nor custom, queen of many slaves, makes blind, +Have ever grieved that man should be the spoil +Of his own weakness, and with earnest mind +Fed hopes of its redemption; these recur _5 +Chastened by deathful victory now, and find +Foundations in this foulest age, and stir +Me whom they cheer to be their minister. + +2. +Dark is the realm of grief: but human things +Those may not know who cannot weep for them. _10 + +... + +3. +Once more descend +The shadows of my soul upon mankind, +For to those hearts with which they never blend, +Thoughts are but shadows which the flashing mind +From the swift clouds which track its flight of fire, _15 +Casts on the gloomy world it leaves behind. + +... + +*** + + +'O THAT A CHARIOT OF CLOUD WERE MINE'. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +O that a chariot of cloud were mine! +Of cloud which the wild tempest weaves in air, +When the moon over the ocean's line +Is spreading the locks of her bright gray hair. +O that a chariot of cloud were mine! _5 +I would sail on the waves of the billowy wind +To the mountain peak and the rocky lake, +And the... + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: TO A FRIEND RELEASED FROM PRISON. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +For me, my friend, if not that tears did tremble +In my faint eyes, and that my heart beat fast +With feelings which make rapture pain resemble, +Yet, from thy voice that falsehood starts aghast, +I thank thee--let the tyrant keep _5 +His chains and tears, yea, let him weep +With rage to see thee freshly risen, +Like strength from slumber, from the prison, +In which he vainly hoped the soul to bind +Which on the chains must prey that fetter humankind. _10 + +NOTE: +For the metre see Fragment: "A Gentle Story" (A.C. Bradley.) + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: SATAN BROKEN LOOSE. + +[Published by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870.] + +A golden-winged Angel stood +Before the Eternal Judgement-seat: +His looks were wild, and Devils' blood +Stained his dainty hands and feet. +The Father and the Son _5 +Knew that strife was now begun. +They knew that Satan had broken his chain, +And with millions of daemons in his train, +Was ranging over the world again. +Before the Angel had told his tale, _10 +A sweet and a creeping sound +Like the rushing of wings was heard around; +And suddenly the lamps grew pale-- +The lamps, before the Archangels seven, +That burn continually in Heaven. _15 + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: "IGNICULUS DESIDERII". + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition. This +fragment is amongst the Shelley manuscripts at the Bodleian. See Mr. +C.D. Locock's "Examination", etc., 1903, page 63.] + +To thirst and find no fill--to wail and wander +With short unsteady steps--to pause and ponder-- +To feel the blood run through the veins and tingle +Where busy thought and blind sensation mingle; +To nurse the image of unfelt caresses _5 +Till dim imagination just possesses +The half-created shadow, then all the night +Sick... + +NOTES: +_2 unsteady B.; uneasy 1839, 1st edition. +_7, _8 then...Sick B.; wanting, 1839, 1st edition. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: "AMOR AETERNUS". + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.] + +Wealth and dominion fade into the mass +Of the great sea of human right and wrong, +When once from our possession they must pass; +But love, though misdirected, is among +The things which are immortal, and surpass _5 +All that frail stuff which will be--or which was. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: THOUGHTS COME AND GO IN SOLITUDE. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.] + +My thoughts arise and fade in solitude, +The verse that would invest them melts away +Like moonlight in the heaven of spreading day: +How beautiful they were, how firm they stood, +Flecking the starry sky like woven pearl! _5 + +*** + + +A HATE-SONG. + +[Published by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870.] + +A hater he came and sat by a ditch, +And he took an old cracked lute; +And he sang a song which was more of a screech +'Gainst a woman that was a brute. + +*** + + +LINES TO A CRITIC. + +[Published by Hunt in "The Liberal", No. 3, 1823. Reprinted in +"Posthumous Poems", 1824, where it is dated December, 1817.] + +1. +Honey from silkworms who can gather, +Or silk from the yellow bee? +The grass may grow in winter weather +As soon as hate in me. + +2. +Hate men who cant, and men who pray, _5 +And men who rail like thee; +An equal passion to repay +They are not coy like me. + +3. +Or seek some slave of power and gold +To be thy dear heart's mate; _10 +Thy love will move that bigot cold +Sooner than me, thy hate. + +4. +A passion like the one I prove +Cannot divided be; +I hate thy want of truth and love-- _15 +How should I then hate thee? + +*** + + +OZYMANDIAS. + +[Published by Hunt in "The Examiner", January, 1818. Reprinted with +"Rosalind and Helen", 1819. There is a copy amongst the Shelley +manuscripts at the Bodleian Library. See Mr. C.D. Locock's +"Examination", etc., 1903, page 46.] + +I met a traveller from an antique land +Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone +Stand in the desert...Near them, on the sand, +Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, +And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, _5 +Tell that its sculptor well those passions read +Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, +The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed: +And on the pedestal these words appear: +'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: _10 +Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!' +Nothing beside remains. Round the decay +Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare +The lone and level sands stretch far away. + +NOTE: +_9 these words appear]this legend clear B. + +*** + + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1817, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +The very illness that oppressed, and the aspect of death which had +approached so near Shelley, appear to have kindled to yet keener life +the Spirit of Poetry in his heart. The restless thoughts kept awake by +pain clothed themselves in verse. Much was composed during this year. +The "Revolt of Islam", written and printed, was a great +effort--"Rosalind and Helen" was begun--and the fragments and poems I +can trace to the same period show how full of passion and reflection +were his solitary hours. + +In addition to such poems as have an intelligible aim and shape, many a +stray idea and transitory emotion found imperfect and abrupt +expression, and then again lost themselves in silence. As he never +wandered without a book and without implements of writing, I find many +such, in his manuscript books, that scarcely bear record; while some of +them, broken and vague as they are, will appear valuable to those who +love Shelley's mind, and desire to trace its workings. + +He projected also translating the "Hymns" of Homer; his version of +several of the shorter ones remains, as well as that to Mercury already +published in the "Posthumous Poems". His readings this year were +chiefly Greek. Besides the "Hymns" of Homer and the "Iliad", he read +the dramas of Aeschylus and Sophocles, the "Symposium" of Plato, and +Arrian's "Historia Indica". In Latin, Apuleius alone is named. In +English, the Bible was his constant study; he read a great portion of +it aloud in the evening. Among these evening readings I find also +mentioned the "Faerie Queen"; and other modern works, the production of +his contemporaries, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Moore and Byron. + +His life was now spent more in thought than action--he had lost the +eager spirit which believed it could achieve what it projected for the +benefit of mankind. And yet in the converse of daily life Shelley was +far from being a melancholy man. He was eloquent when philosophy or +politics or taste were the subjects of conversation. He was playful; +and indulged in the wild spirit that mocked itself and others--not in +bitterness, but in sport. The author of "Nightmare Abbey" seized on +some points of his character and some habits of his life when he +painted Scythrop. He was not addicted to 'port or madeira,' but in +youth he had read of 'Illuminati and Eleutherarchs,' and believed that +he possessed the power of operating an immediate change in the minds of +men and the state of society. These wild dreams had faded; sorrow and +adversity had struck home; but he struggled with despondency as he did +with physical pain. There are few who remember him sailing paper boats, +and watching the navigation of his tiny craft with eagerness--or +repeating with wild energy "The Ancient Mariner", and Southey's "Old +Woman of Berkeley"; but those who do will recollect that it was in +such, and in the creations of his own fancy when that was most daring +and ideal, that he sheltered himself from the storms and +disappointments, the pain and sorrow, that beset his life. + +No words can express the anguish he felt when his elder children were +torn from him. In his first resentment against the Chancellor, on the +passing of the decree, he had written a curse, in which there breathes, +besides haughty indignation, all the tenderness of a father's love, +which could imagine and fondly dwell upon its loss and the +consequences. + +At one time, while the question was still pending, the Chancellor had +said some words that seemed to intimate that Shelley should not be +permitted the care of any of his children, and for a moment he feared +that our infant son would be torn from us. He did not hesitate to +resolve, if such were menaced, to abandon country, fortune, everything, +and to escape with his child; and I find some unfinished stanzas +addressed to this son, whom afterwards we lost at Rome, written under +the idea that we might suddenly be forced to cross the sea, so to +preserve him. This poem, as well as the one previously quoted, were not +written to exhibit the pangs of distress to the public; they were the +spontaneous outbursts of a man who brooded over his wrongs and woes, +and was impelled to shed the grace of his genius over the +uncontrollable emotions of his heart. I ought to observe that the +fourth verse of this effusion is introduced in "Rosalind and Helen". +When afterwards this child died at Rome, he wrote, a propos of the +English burying-ground in that city: 'This spot is the repository of a +sacred loss, of which the yearnings of a parent's heart are now +prophetic; he is rendered immortal by love, as his memory is by death. +My beloved child lies buried here. I envy death the body far less than +the oppressors the minds of those whom they have torn from me. The one +can only kill the body, the other crushes the affections.' + +*** + + +POEMS WRITTEN IN 1818. + + +TO THE NILE. + +['Found by Mr. Townshend Meyer among the papers of Leigh Hunt, [and] +published in the "St. James's Magazine" for March, 1876.' (Mr. H. +Buxton Forman, C.B.; "Poetical Works of P. B. S.", Library Edition, +1876, volume 3 page 410.) First included among Shelley's poetical works +in Mr. Forman's Library Edition, where a facsimile of the manuscript is +given. Composed February 4, 1818. See "Complete Works of John Keats", +edition H. Buxton Forman, Glasgow, 1901, volume 4 page 76.] + +Month after month the gathered rains descend +Drenching yon secret Aethiopian dells, +And from the desert's ice-girt pinnacles +Where Frost and Heat in strange embraces blend +On Atlas, fields of moist snow half depend. _5 +Girt there with blasts and meteors Tempest dwells +By Nile's aereal urn, with rapid spells +Urging those waters to their mighty end. +O'er Egypt's land of Memory floods are level +And they are thine, O Nile--and well thou knowest _10 +That soul-sustaining airs and blasts of evil +And fruits and poisons spring where'er thou flowest. +Beware, O Man--for knowledge must to thee, +Like the great flood to Egypt, ever be. + +*** + + +PASSAGE OF THE APENNINES. + +[Composed May 4, 1818. Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", +1824. There is a copy amongst the Shelley manuscripts at the Bodleian +Library, which supplies the last word of the fragment.] + +Listen, listen, Mary mine, +To the whisper of the Apennine, +It bursts on the roof like the thunder's roar, +Or like the sea on a northern shore, +Heard in its raging ebb and flow _5 +By the captives pent in the cave below. +The Apennine in the light of day +Is a mighty mountain dim and gray, +Which between the earth and sky doth lay; +But when night comes, a chaos dread _10 +On the dim starlight then is spread, +And the Apennine walks abroad with the storm, +Shrouding... + +*** + + +THE PAST. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +1. +Wilt thou forget the happy hours +Which we buried in Love's sweet bowers, +Heaping over their corpses cold +Blossoms and leaves, instead of mould? +Blossoms which were the joys that fell, _5 +And leaves, the hopes that yet remain. + +2. +Forget the dead, the past? Oh, yet +There are ghosts that may take revenge for it, +Memories that make the heart a tomb, +Regrets which glide through the spirit's gloom, _10 +And with ghastly whispers tell +That joy, once lost, is pain. + +*** + + +TO MARY --. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +O Mary dear, that you were here +With your brown eyes bright and clear. +And your sweet voice, like a bird +Singing love to its lone mate +In the ivy bower disconsolate; _5 +Voice the sweetest ever heard! +And your brow more... +Than the ... sky +Of this azure Italy. +Mary dear, come to me soon, _10 +I am not well whilst thou art far; +As sunset to the sphered moon, +As twilight to the western star, +Thou, beloved, art to me. + +O Mary dear, that you were here; _15 +The Castle echo whispers 'Here!' + +*** + + +ON A FADED VIOLET. + +[Published by Hunt, "Literary Pocket-Book", 1821. Reprinted by Mrs. +Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824. Again reprinted, with several +variants, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition. Our text is that of the +editio princeps, 1821. A transcript is extant in a letter from Shelley +to Sophia Stacey, dated March 7, 1820.] + +1. +The odour from the flower is gone +Which like thy kisses breathed on me; +The colour from the flower is flown +Which glowed of thee and only thee! + +2. +A shrivelled, lifeless, vacant form, _5 +It lies on my abandoned breast, +And mocks the heart which yet is warm, +With cold and silent rest. + +3. +I weep,--my tears revive it not! +I sigh,--it breathes no more on me; _10 +Its mute and uncomplaining lot +Is such as mine should be. + +NOTES: +_1 odour]colour 1839. +_2 kisses breathed]sweet eyes smiled 1839. +_3 colour]odour 1839. +_4 glowed]breathed 1839. +_5 shrivelled]withered 1839. +_8 cold and silent all editions; its cold, silent Stacey manuscript. + +*** + + +LINES WRITTEN AMONG THE EUGANEAN HILLS. + +OCTOBER, 1818. + +[Composed at Este, October, 1818. Published with "Rosalind and Helen", +1819. Amongst the late Mr. Fredk. Locker-Lampson's collections at +Rowfant there is a manuscript of the lines (167-205) on Byron, +interpolated after the completion of the poem.] + +Many a green isle needs must be +In the deep wide sea of Misery, +Or the mariner, worn and wan, +Never thus could voyage on-- +Day and night, and night and day, _5 +Drifting on his dreary way, +With the solid darkness black +Closing round his vessel's track: +Whilst above the sunless sky, +Big with clouds, hangs heavily, _10 +And behind the tempest fleet +Hurries on with lightning feet, +Riving sail, and cord, and plank, +Till the ship has almost drank +Death from the o'er-brimming deep; _15 +And sinks down, down, like that sleep +When the dreamer seems to be +Weltering through eternity; +And the dim low line before +Of a dark and distant shore _20 +Still recedes, as ever still +Longing with divided will, +But no power to seek or shun, +He is ever drifted on +O'er the unreposing wave _25 +To the haven of the grave. +What, if there no friends will greet; +What, if there no heart will meet +His with love's impatient beat; +Wander wheresoe'er he may, _30 +Can he dream before that day +To find refuge from distress +In friendship's smile, in love's caress? +Then 'twill wreak him little woe +Whether such there be or no: _35 +Senseless is the breast, and cold, +Which relenting love would fold; +Bloodless are the veins and chill +Which the pulse of pain did fill; +Every little living nerve _40 +That from bitter words did swerve +Round the tortured lips and brow, +Are like sapless leaflets now +Frozen upon December's bough. + +On the beach of a northern sea _45 +Which tempests shake eternally, +As once the wretch there lay to sleep, +Lies a solitary heap, +One white skull and seven dry bones, +On the margin of the stones, _50 +Where a few gray rushes stand, +Boundaries of the sea and land: +Nor is heard one voice of wail +But the sea-mews, as they sail +O'er the billows of the gale; _55 +Or the whirlwind up and down +Howling, like a slaughtered town, +When a king in glory rides +Through the pomp of fratricides: +Those unburied bones around _60 +There is many a mournful sound; +There is no lament for him, +Like a sunless vapour, dim, +Who once clothed with life and thought +What now moves nor murmurs not. _65 + +Ay, many flowering islands lie +In the waters of wide Agony: +To such a one this morn was led, +My bark by soft winds piloted: +'Mid the mountains Euganean _70 +I stood listening to the paean +With which the legioned rooks did hail +The sun's uprise majestical; +Gathering round with wings all hoar, +Through the dewy mist they soar _75 +Like gray shades, till the eastern heaven +Bursts, and then, as clouds of even, +Flecked with fire and azure, lie +In the unfathomable sky, +So their plumes of purple grain, _80 +Starred with drops of golden rain, +Gleam above the sunlight woods, +As in silent multitudes +On the morning's fitful gale +Through the broken mist they sail, _85 +And the vapours cloven and gleaming +Follow, down the dark steep streaming, +Till all is bright, and clear, and still, +Round the solitary hill. + +Beneath is spread like a green sea _90 +The waveless plain of Lombardy, +Bounded by the vaporous air, +Islanded by cities fair; +Underneath Day's azure eyes +Ocean's nursling, Venice lies, _95 +A peopled labyrinth of walls, +Amphitrite's destined halls, +Which her hoary sire now paves +With his blue and beaming waves. +Lo! the sun upsprings behind, _100 +Broad, red, radiant, half-reclined +On the level quivering line +Of the waters crystalline; +And before that chasm of light, +As within a furnace bright, _105 +Column, tower, and dome, and spire, +Shine like obelisks of fire, +Pointing with inconstant motion +From the altar of dark ocean +To the sapphire-tinted skies; _110 +As the flames of sacrifice +From the marble shrines did rise, +As to pierce the dome of gold +Where Apollo spoke of old. + +Sun-girt City, thou hast been _115 +Ocean's child, and then his queen; +Now is come a darker day, +And thou soon must be his prey, +If the power that raised thee here +Hallow so thy watery bier. _120 +A less drear ruin then than now, +With thy conquest-branded brow +Stooping to the slave of slaves +From thy throne, among the waves +Wilt thou be, when the sea-mew _125 +Flies, as once before it flew, +O'er thine isles depopulate, +And all is in its ancient state, +Save where many a palace gate _130 +With green sea-flowers overgrown +Like a rock of Ocean's own, +Topples o'er the abandoned sea +As the tides change sullenly. +The fisher on his watery way, +Wandering at the close of day, _135 +Will spread his sail and seize his oar +Till he pass the gloomy shore, +Lest thy dead should, from their sleep +Bursting o'er the starlight deep, +Lead a rapid masque of death _140 +O'er the waters of his path. + +Those who alone thy towers behold +Quivering through aereal gold, +As I now behold them here, +Would imagine not they were _145 +Sepulchres, where human forms, +Like pollution-nourished worms, +To the corpse of greatness cling, +Murdered, and now mouldering: +But if Freedom should awake _150 +In her omnipotence, and shake +From the Celtic Anarch's hold +All the keys of dungeons cold, +Where a hundred cities lie +Chained like thee, ingloriously, _155 +Thou and all thy sister band +Might adorn this sunny land, +Twining memories of old time +With new virtues more sublime; +If not, perish thou and they!-- _160 +Clouds which stain truth's rising day +By her sun consumed away-- +Earth can spare ye: while like flowers, +In the waste of years and hours, +From your dust new nations spring _165 +With more kindly blossoming. + +Perish--let there only be +Floating o'er thy hearthless sea +As the garment of thy sky +Clothes the world immortally, _170 +One remembrance, more sublime +Than the tattered pall of time, +Which scarce hides thy visage wan;-- +That a tempest-cleaving Swan +Of the songs of Albion, _175 +Driven from his ancestral streams +By the might of evil dreams, +Found a nest in thee; and Ocean +Welcomed him with such emotion +That its joy grew his, and sprung _180 +From his lips like music flung +O'er a mighty thunder-fit, +Chastening terror:--what though yet +Poesy's unfailing River, +Which through Albion winds forever _185 +Lashing with melodious wave +Many a sacred Poet's grave, +Mourn its latest nursling fled? +What though thou with all thy dead +Scarce can for this fame repay _190 +Aught thine own? oh, rather say +Though thy sins and slaveries foul +Overcloud a sunlike soul? +As the ghost of Homer clings +Round Scamander's wasting springs; _195 +As divinest Shakespeare's might +Fills Avon and the world with light +Like omniscient power which he +Imaged 'mid mortality; +As the love from Petrarch's urn, _200 +Yet amid yon hills doth burn, +A quenchless lamp by which the heart +Sees things unearthly;--so thou art, +Mighty spirit--so shall be +The City that did refuge thee. _205 + +Lo, the sun floats up the sky +Like thought-winged Liberty, +Till the universal light +Seems to level plain and height; +From the sea a mist has spread, _210 +And the beams of morn lie dead +On the towers of Venice now, +Like its glory long ago. +By the skirts of that gray cloud +Many-domed Padua proud _215 +Stands, a peopled solitude, +'Mid the harvest-shining plain, +Where the peasant heaps his grain +In the garner of his foe, +And the milk-white oxen slow _220 +With the purple vintage strain, +Heaped upon the creaking wain, +That the brutal Celt may swill +Drunken sleep with savage will; +And the sickle to the sword _225 +Lies unchanged, though many a lord, +Like a weed whose shade is poison, +Overgrows this region's foison, +Sheaves of whom are ripe to come +To destruction's harvest-home: _230 +Men must reap the things they sow, +Force from force must ever flow, +Or worse; but 'tis a bitter woe +That love or reason cannot change +The despot's rage, the slave's revenge. _235 + +Padua, thou within whose walls +Those mute guests at festivals, +Son and Mother, Death and Sin, +Played at dice for Ezzelin, +Till Death cried, "I win, I win!" _240 +And Sin cursed to lose the wager, +But Death promised, to assuage her, +That he would petition for +Her to be made Vice-Emperor, +When the destined years were o'er, _245 +Over all between the Po +And the eastern Alpine snow, +Under the mighty Austrian. +Sin smiled so as Sin only can, +And since that time, ay, long before, _250 +Both have ruled from shore to shore,-- +That incestuous pair, who follow +Tyrants as the sun the swallow, +As Repentance follows Crime, +And as changes follow Time. _255 + +In thine halls the lamp of learning, +Padua, now no more is burning; +Like a meteor, whose wild way +Is lost over the grave of day, +It gleams betrayed and to betray: _260 +Once remotest nations came +To adore that sacred flame, +When it lit not many a hearth +On this cold and gloomy earth: +Now new fires from antique light _265 +Spring beneath the wide world's might; +But their spark lies dead in thee, +Trampled out by Tyranny. +As the Norway woodman quells, +In the depth of piny dells, _270 +One light flame among the brakes, +While the boundless forest shakes, +And its mighty trunks are torn +By the fire thus lowly born: +The spark beneath his feet is dead, _275 +He starts to see the flames it fed +Howling through the darkened sky +With a myriad tongues victoriously, +And sinks down in fear: so thou, +O Tyranny, beholdest now _280 +Light around thee, and thou hearest +The loud flames ascend, and fearest: +Grovel on the earth; ay, hide +In the dust thy purple pride! + +Noon descends around me now: _285 +'Tis the noon of autumn's glow, +When a soft and purple mist +Like a vaporous amethyst, +Or an air-dissolved star +Mingling light and fragrance, far _290 +From the curved horizon's bound +To the point of Heaven's profound, +Fills the overflowing sky; +And the plains that silent lie +Underneath, the leaves unsodden _295 +Where the infant Frost has trodden +With his morning-winged feet, +Whose bright print is gleaming yet; +And the red and golden vines, +Piercing with their trellised lines _300 +The rough, dark-skirted wilderness; +The dun and bladed grass no less, +Pointing from this hoary tower +In the windless air; the flower +Glimmering at my feet; the line _305 +Of the olive-sandalled Apennine +In the south dimly islanded; +And the Alps, whose snows are spread +High between the clouds and sun; +And of living things each one; _310 +And my spirit which so long +Darkened this swift stream of song,-- +Interpenetrated lie +By the glory of the sky: +Be it love, light, harmony, _315 +Odour, or the soul of all +Which from Heaven like dew doth fall, +Or the mind which feeds this verse +Peopling the lone universe. + +Noon descends, and after noon _320 +Autumn's evening meets me soon, +Leading the infantine moon, +And that one star, which to her +Almost seems to minister +Half the crimson light she brings _325 +From the sunset's radiant springs: +And the soft dreams of the morn +(Which like winged winds had borne +To that silent isle, which lies +Mid remembered agonies, _330 +The frail bark of this lone being) +Pass, to other sufferers fleeing, +And its ancient pilot, Pain, +Sits beside the helm again. + +Other flowering isles must be _335 +In the sea of Life and Agony: +Other spirits float and flee +O'er that gulf: even now, perhaps, +On some rock the wild wave wraps, +With folded wings they waiting sit _340 +For my bark, to pilot it +To some calm and blooming cove, +Where for me, and those I love, +May a windless bower be built, +Far from passion, pain, and guilt, _345 +In a dell mid lawny hills, +Which the wild sea-murmur fills, +And soft sunshine, and the sound +Of old forests echoing round, +And the light and smell divine _350 +Of all flowers that breathe and shine: +We may live so happy there, +That the Spirits of the Air, +Envying us, may even entice +To our healing Paradise _355 +The polluting multitude; +But their rage would be subdued +By that clime divine and calm, +And the winds whose wings rain balm +On the uplifted soul, and leaves _360 +Under which the bright sea heaves; +While each breathless interval +In their whisperings musical +The inspired soul supplies +With its own deep melodies; _365 +And the love which heals all strife +Circling, like the breath of life, +All things in that sweet abode +With its own mild brotherhood, +They, not it, would change; and soon _370 +Every sprite beneath the moon +Would repent its envy vain, +And the earth grow young again. + +NOTES: +_54 seamews 1819; seamew's Rossetti. +_115 Sun-girt]Sea-girt cj. Palgrave. +_165 From your dust new 1819; + From thy dust shall Rowfant manuscript (heading of lines 167-205). +_175 songs 1819; sons cj. Forman. +_278 a 1819; wanting, 1839. + +*** + + +SCENE FROM 'TASSO'. + +[Composed, 1818. Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +MADDALO, A COURTIER. +MALPIGLIO, A POET. +PIGNA, A MINISTER. +ALBANO, AN USHER. + +MADDALO: +No access to the Duke! You have not said +That the Count Maddalo would speak with him? + +PIGNA: +Did you inform his Grace that Signor Pigna +Waits with state papers for his signature? + +MALPIGLIO: +The Lady Leonora cannot know _5 +That I have written a sonnet to her fame, +In which I ... Venus and Adonis. +You should not take my gold and serve me not. + +ALBANO: +In truth I told her, and she smiled and said, +'If I am Venus, thou, coy Poesy, _10 +Art the Adonis whom I love, and he +The Erymanthian boar that wounded him.' +O trust to me, Signor Malpiglio, +Those nods and smiles were favours worth the zechin. + +MALPIGLIO: +The words are twisted in some double sense _15 +That I reach not: the smiles fell not on me. + +PIGNA: +How are the Duke and Duchess occupied? + +ALBANO: +Buried in some strange talk. The Duke was leaning, +His finger on his brow, his lips unclosed. +The Princess sate within the window-seat, _20 +And so her face was hid; but on her knee +Her hands were clasped, veined, and pale as snow, +And quivering--young Tasso, too, was there. + +MADDALO: +Thou seest on whom from thine own worshipped heaven +Thou drawest down smiles--they did not rain on thee. _25 + +MALPIGLIO: +Would they were parching lightnings for his sake +On whom they fell! + +*** + + +SONG FOR 'TASSO'. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +1. +I loved--alas! our life is love; +But when we cease to breathe and move +I do suppose love ceases too. +I thought, but not as now I do, +Keen thoughts and bright of linked lore, _5 +Of all that men had thought before. +And all that Nature shows, and more. + +2. +And still I love and still I think, +But strangely, for my heart can drink +The dregs of such despair, and live, _10 +And love;... +And if I think, my thoughts come fast, +I mix the present with the past, +And each seems uglier than the last. + +3. +Sometimes I see before me flee _15 +A silver spirit's form, like thee, +O Leonora, and I sit +...still watching it, +Till by the grated casement's ledge +It fades, with such a sigh, as sedge _20 +Breathes o'er the breezy streamlet's edge. + +*** + + +INVOCATION TO MISERY. + +[Published by Medwin, "The Athenaeum", September 8, 1832. Reprinted (as +"Misery, a Fragment") by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st +edition. Our text is that of 1839. A pencil copy of this poem is +amongst the Shelley manuscripts at the Bodleian Library. See Mr. C.D. +Locock's "Examination", etc., 1903, page 38. The readings of this copy +are indicated by the letter B. in the footnotes.] + +1. +Come, be happy!--sit near me, +Shadow-vested Misery: +Coy, unwilling, silent bride, +Mourning in thy robe of pride, +Desolation--deified! _5 + +2. +Come, be happy!--sit near me: +Sad as I may seem to thee, +I am happier far than thou, +Lady, whose imperial brow +Is endiademed with woe. _10 + +3. +Misery! we have known each other, +Like a sister and a brother +Living in the same lone home, +Many years--we must live some +Hours or ages yet to come. _15 + +4. +'Tis an evil lot, and yet +Let us make the best of it; +If love can live when pleasure dies, +We two will love, till in our eyes +This heart's Hell seem Paradise. _20 + +5. +Come, be happy!--lie thee down +On the fresh grass newly mown, +Where the Grasshopper doth sing +Merrily--one joyous thing +In a world of sorrowing! _25 + +6. +There our tent shall be the willow, +And mine arm shall be thy pillow; +Sounds and odours, sorrowful +Because they once were sweet, shall lull +Us to slumber, deep and dull. _30 + +7. +Ha! thy frozen pulses flutter +With a love thou darest not utter. +Thou art murmuring--thou art weeping-- +Is thine icy bosom leaping +While my burning heart lies sleeping? _35 + +8. +Kiss me;--oh! thy lips are cold: +Round my neck thine arms enfold-- +They are soft, but chill and dead; +And thy tears upon my head +Burn like points of frozen lead. _40 + +9. +Hasten to the bridal bed-- +Underneath the grave 'tis spread: +In darkness may our love be hid, +Oblivion be our coverlid-- +We may rest, and none forbid. _45 + +10. +Clasp me till our hearts be grown +Like two shadows into one; +Till this dreadful transport may +Like a vapour fade away, +In the sleep that lasts alway. _50 + +11. +We may dream, in that long sleep, +That we are not those who weep; +E'en as Pleasure dreams of thee, +Life-deserting Misery, +Thou mayst dream of her with me. _55 + +12. +Let us laugh, and make our mirth, +At the shadows of the earth, +As dogs bay the moonlight clouds, +Which, like spectres wrapped in shrouds, +Pass o'er night in multitudes. _60 + +13. +All the wide world, beside us, +Show like multitudinous +Puppets passing from a scene; +What but mockery can they mean, +Where I am--where thou hast been? _65 + +NOTES: +_1 near B., 1839; by 1832. +_8 happier far]merrier yet B. +_15 Hours or]Years and 1832. +_17 best]most 1832. +_19 We two will]We will 1832. +_27 mine arm shall be thy B., 1839; thine arm shall be my 1832. +_33 represented by asterisks, 1832. +_34, _35 Thou art murmuring, thou art weeping, + Whilst my burning bosom's leaping 1832; + Was thine icy bosom leaping + While my burning heart was sleeping B. +_40 frozen 1832, 1839, B.; molten cj. Forman. +_44 be]is B. +_47 shadows]lovers 1832, B. +_59 which B., 1839; that 1832. +_62 Show]Are 1832, B. +_63 Puppets passing]Shadows shifting 1832; Shadows passing B. +_64, _65 So B.: What but mockery may they mean? + Where am I?--Where thou hast been 1832. + +*** + + +STANZAS WRITTEN IN DEJECTION, NEAR NAPLES. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824, where it is dated +'December, 1818.' A draft of stanza 1 is amongst the Boscombe +manuscripts. (Garnett).] + +1. +The sun is warm, the sky is clear, +The waves are dancing fast and bright, +Blue isles and snowy mountains wear +The purple noon's transparent might, +The breath of the moist earth is light, _5 +Around its unexpanded buds; +Like many a voice of one delight, +The winds, the birds, the ocean floods, +The City's voice itself, is soft like Solitude's. + +2. +I see the Deep's untrampled floor _10 +With green and purple seaweeds strown; +I see the waves upon the shore, +Like light dissolved in star-showers, thrown: +I sit upon the sands alone,-- +The lightning of the noontide ocean _15 +Is flashing round me, and a tone +Arises from its measured motion, +How sweet! did any heart now share in my emotion. + +3. +Alas! I have nor hope nor health, +Nor peace within nor calm around, _20 +Nor that content surpassing wealth +The sage in meditation found, +And walked with inward glory crowned-- +Nor fame, nor power, nor love, nor leisure. +Others I see whom these surround-- _25 +Smiling they live, and call life pleasure;-- +To me that cup has been dealt in another measure. + +4. +Yet now despair itself is mild, +Even as the winds and waters are; +I could lie down like a tired child, _30 +And weep away the life of care +Which I have borne and yet must bear, +Till death like sleep might steal on me, +And I might feel in the warm air +My cheek grow cold, and hear the sea _35 +Breathe o'er my dying brain its last monotony. + +5. +Some might lament that I were cold, +As I, when this sweet day is gone, +Which my lost heart, too soon grown old, +Insults with this untimely moan; _40 +They might lament--for I am one +Whom men love not,--and yet regret, +Unlike this day, which, when the sun +Shall on its stainless glory set, +Will linger, though enjoyed, like joy in memory yet. _45 + +NOTES: +_4 might Boscombe manuscript, Medwin 1847; light 1824, 1839. +_5 The...light Boscombe manuscript, 1839, Medwin 1847; + omitted, 1824. moist earth Boscombe manuscript; + moist air 1839; west wind Medwin 1847. +_17 measured 1824; mingled 1847. +_18 did any heart now 1824; if any heart could Medwin 1847. +_31 the 1824; this Medwin 1847. +_36 dying 1824; outworn Medwin 1847. + +*** + + +THE WOODMAN AND THE NIGHTINGALE. + +[Published in part (1-67) by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824; +the remainder (68-70) by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +A woodman whose rough heart was out of tune +(I think such hearts yet never came to good) +Hated to hear, under the stars or moon, + +One nightingale in an interfluous wood +Satiate the hungry dark with melody;-- _5 +And as a vale is watered by a flood, + +Or as the moonlight fills the open sky +Struggling with darkness--as a tuberose +Peoples some Indian dell with scents which lie + +Like clouds above the flower from which they rose, _10 +The singing of that happy nightingale +In this sweet forest, from the golden close + +Of evening till the star of dawn may fail, +Was interfused upon the silentness; +The folded roses and the violets pale _15 + +Heard her within their slumbers, the abyss +Of heaven with all its planets; the dull ear +Of the night-cradled earth; the loneliness + +Of the circumfluous waters,--every sphere +And every flower and beam and cloud and wave, _20 +And every wind of the mute atmosphere, + +And every beast stretched in its rugged cave, +And every bird lulled on its mossy bough, +And every silver moth fresh from the grave + +Which is its cradle--ever from below _25 +Aspiring like one who loves too fair, too far, +To be consumed within the purest glow + +Of one serene and unapproached star, +As if it were a lamp of earthly light, +Unconscious, as some human lovers are, _30 + +Itself how low, how high beyond all height +The heaven where it would perish!--and every form +That worshipped in the temple of the night + +Was awed into delight, and by the charm +Girt as with an interminable zone, _35 +Whilst that sweet bird, whose music was a storm + +Of sound, shook forth the dull oblivion +Out of their dreams; harmony became love +In every soul but one. + +... + +And so this man returned with axe and saw _40 +At evening close from killing the tall treen, +The soul of whom by Nature's gentle law + +Was each a wood-nymph, and kept ever green +The pavement and the roof of the wild copse, +Chequering the sunlight of the blue serene _45 + +With jagged leaves,--and from the forest tops +Singing the winds to sleep--or weeping oft +Fast showers of aereal water-drops + +Into their mother's bosom, sweet and soft, +Nature's pure tears which have no bitterness;-- _50 +Around the cradles of the birds aloft + +They spread themselves into the loveliness +Of fan-like leaves, and over pallid flowers +Hang like moist clouds:--or, where high branches kiss, + +Make a green space among the silent bowers, _55 +Like a vast fane in a metropolis, +Surrounded by the columns and the towers + +All overwrought with branch-like traceries +In which there is religion--and the mute +Persuasion of unkindled melodies, _60 + +Odours and gleams and murmurs, which the lute +Of the blind pilot-spirit of the blast +Stirs as it sails, now grave and now acute, + +Wakening the leaves and waves, ere it has passed +To such brief unison as on the brain _65 +One tone, which never can recur, has cast, +One accent never to return again. + +... + +The world is full of Woodmen who expel +Love's gentle Dryads from the haunts of life, +And vex the nightingales in every dell. _70 + +NOTE: +_8 --or as a tuberose cj. A.C. Bradley. + +*** + + +MARENGHI. (This fragment refers to an event told in Sismondi's +"Histoire des Republiques Italiennes", which occurred during the war +when Florence finally subdued Pisa, and reduced it to a +province.--[MRS. SHELLEY'S NOTE, 1824.]) + +[Published in part (stanzas 7-15.) by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", +1824; stanzas 1-28 by W.M. Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. +S.", 1870. The Boscombe manuscript--evidently a first draft--from which +(through Dr. Garnett) Rossetti derived the text of 1870 is now at the +Bodleian, and has recently been collated by Mr. C.D. Locock, to whom +the enlarged and amended text here printed is owing. The substitution, +in title and text, of "Marenghi" for "Mazenghi" (1824) is due to +Rossetti. Here as elsewhere in the footnotes B. = the Bodleian +manuscript.] + +1. +Let those who pine in pride or in revenge, +Or think that ill for ill should be repaid, +Who barter wrong for wrong, until the exchange +Ruins the merchants of such thriftless trade, +Visit the tower of Vado, and unlearn _5 +Such bitter faith beside Marenghi's urn. + +2. +A massy tower yet overhangs the town, +A scattered group of ruined dwellings now... + +... + +3. +Another scene are wise Etruria knew +Its second ruin through internal strife _10 +And tyrants through the breach of discord threw +The chain which binds and kills. As death to life, +As winter to fair flowers (though some be poison) +So Monarchy succeeds to Freedom's foison. + +4. +In Pisa's church a cup of sculptured gold _15 +Was brimming with the blood of feuds forsworn: +A Sacrament more holy ne'er of old +Etrurians mingled mid the shades forlorn +Of moon-illumined forests, when... + +5. +And reconciling factions wet their lips _20 +With that dread wine, and swear to keep each spirit +Undarkened by their country's last eclipse... + +... + +6. +Was Florence the liberticide? that band +Of free and glorious brothers who had planted, +Like a green isle mid Aethiopian sand, _25 +A nation amid slaveries, disenchanted +Of many impious faiths--wise, just--do they, +Does Florence, gorge the sated tyrants' prey? + +7. +O foster-nurse of man's abandoned glory, +Since Athens, its great mother, sunk in splendour; _30 +Thou shadowest forth that mighty shape in story, +As ocean its wrecked fanes, severe yet tender:-- +The light-invested angel Poesy +Was drawn from the dim world to welcome thee. + +8. +And thou in painting didst transcribe all taught _35 +By loftiest meditations; marble knew +The sculptor's fearless soul--and as he wrought, +The grace of his own power and freedom grew. +And more than all, heroic, just, sublime, +Thou wart among the false...was this thy crime? _40 + +9. +Yes; and on Pisa's marble walls the twine +Of direst weeds hangs garlanded--the snake +Inhabits its wrecked palaces;--in thine +A beast of subtler venom now doth make +Its lair, and sits amid their glories overthrown, _45 +And thus thy victim's fate is as thine own. + +10. +The sweetest flowers are ever frail and rare, +And love and freedom blossom but to wither; +And good and ill like vines entangled are, +So that their grapes may oft be plucked together;-- _50 +Divide the vintage ere thou drink, then make +Thy heart rejoice for dead Marenghi's sake. + +10a. +[Albert] Marenghi was a Florentine; +If he had wealth, or children, or a wife +Or friends, [or farm] or cherished thoughts which twine _55 +The sights and sounds of home with life's own life +Of these he was despoiled and Florence sent... + +... + +11. +No record of his crime remains in story, +But if the morning bright as evening shone, _60 +It was some high and holy deed, by glory +Pursued into forgetfulness, which won +From the blind crowd he made secure and free +The patriot's meed, toil, death, and infamy. + +12. +For when by sound of trumpet was declared +A price upon his life, and there was set _65 +A penalty of blood on all who shared +So much of water with him as might wet +His lips, which speech divided not--he went +Alone, as you may guess, to banishment. + +13. +Amid the mountains, like a hunted beast, +He hid himself, and hunger, toil, and cold, _70 +Month after month endured; it was a feast +Whene'er he found those globes of deep-red gold +Which in the woods the strawberry-tree doth bear, +Suspended in their emerald atmosphere. _75 + +14. +And in the roofless huts of vast morasses, +Deserted by the fever-stricken serf, +All overgrown with reeds and long rank grasses, +And hillocks heaped of moss-inwoven turf, +And where the huge and speckled aloe made, _80 +Rooted in stones, a broad and pointed shade,-- + +15. +He housed himself. There is a point of strand +Near Vado's tower and town; and on one side +The treacherous marsh divides it from the land, +Shadowed by pine and ilex forests wide, _85 +And on the other, creeps eternally, +Through muddy weeds, the shallow sullen sea. + +16. +Here the earth's breath is pestilence, and few +But things whose nature is at war with life-- +Snakes and ill worms--endure its mortal dew. +The trophies of the clime's victorious strife-- _90 +And ringed horns which the buffalo did wear, +And the wolf's dark gray scalp who tracked him there. + +17. +And at the utmost point...stood there +The relics of a reed-inwoven cot, _95 +Thatched with broad flags. An outlawed murderer +Had lived seven days there: the pursuit was hot +When he was cold. The birds that were his grave +Fell dead after their feast in Vado's wave. + +18. +There must have burned within Marenghi's breast _100 +That fire, more warm and bright than life and hope, +(Which to the martyr makes his dungeon... +More joyous than free heaven's majestic cope +To his oppressor), warring with decay,-- +Or he could ne'er have lived years, day by day. _105 + +19. +Nor was his state so lone as you might think. +He had tamed every newt and snake and toad, +And every seagull which sailed down to drink +Those freshes ere the death-mist went abroad. +And each one, with peculiar talk and play, _110 +Wiled, not untaught, his silent time away. + +20. +And the marsh-meteors, like tame beasts, at night +Came licking with blue tongues his veined feet; +And he would watch them, as, like spirits bright, +In many entangled figures quaint and sweet _115 +To some enchanted music they would dance-- +Until they vanished at the first moon-glance. + +21. +He mocked the stars by grouping on each weed +The summer dew-globes in the golden dawn; +And, ere the hoar-frost languished, he could read _120 +Its pictured path, as on bare spots of lawn +Its delicate brief touch in silver weaves +The likeness of the wood's remembered leaves. + +22. +And many a fresh Spring morn would he awaken-- +While yet the unrisen sun made glow, like iron _125 +Quivering in crimson fire, the peaks unshaken +Of mountains and blue isles which did environ +With air-clad crags that plain of land and sea,-- +And feel ... liberty. + +23. +And in the moonless nights when the dun ocean _130 +Heaved underneath wide heaven, star-impearled, +Starting from dreams... +Communed with the immeasurable world; +And felt his life beyond his limbs dilated, +Till his mind grew like that it contemplated. _135 + +24. +His food was the wild fig and strawberry; +The milky pine-nuts which the autumn-blast +Shakes into the tall grass; or such small fry +As from the sea by winter-storms are cast; +And the coarse bulbs of iris-flowers he found _140 +Knotted in clumps under the spongy ground. + +25. +And so were kindled powers and thoughts which made +His solitude less dark. When memory came +(For years gone by leave each a deepening shade), +His spirit basked in its internal flame,-- _145 +As, when the black storm hurries round at night, +The fisher basks beside his red firelight. + +26. +Yet human hopes and cares and faiths and errors, +Like billows unawakened by the wind, +Slept in Marenghi still; but that all terrors, _150 +Weakness, and doubt, had withered in his mind. +His couch... + +... + +27. +And, when he saw beneath the sunset's planet +A black ship walk over the crimson ocean,-- +Its pennon streaming on the blasts that fan it, _155 +Its sails and ropes all tense and without motion, +Like the dark ghost of the unburied even +Striding athwart the orange-coloured heaven,-- + +28. +The thought of his own kind who made the soul +Which sped that winged shape through night and day,-- _160 +The thought of his own country... + +... + +NOTES: +_3 Who B.; Or 1870. +_6 Marenghi's 1870; Mazenghi's B. +_7 town 1870; sea B. +_8 ruined 1870; squalid B. ('the whole line is cancelled,' Locock). +_11 threw 1870; cancelled, B. +_17 A Sacrament more B.; At Sacrament: more 1870. +_18 mid B.; with 1870. +_19 forests when... B.; forests. 1870. +_23, _24 that band Of free and glorious brothers who had 1870; omitted, B. +_25 a 1870; one B. +_27 wise, just--do they 1870; omitted, B. +_28 Does 1870; Doth B. prey 1870; spoil B. +_33 angel 1824; Herald [?] B. +_34 to welcome thee 1824; cancelled for... by thee B. +_42 direst 1824; Desert B. +_45 sits amid 1824 amid cancelled for soils (?) B. +_53-_57 Albert...sent B.; omitted 1824, 1870. Albert cancelled B.: + Pietro is the correct name. +_53 Marenghi]Mazenghi B. +_55 farm doubtful: perh. fame (Locock). +_62 he 1824; thus B. +_70 Amid the mountains 1824; Mid desert mountains [?] B. +_71 toil, and cold]cold and toil editions 1824, 1839. +_92, _93 And... there B. (see Editor's Note); White bones, and locks of + dun and yellow hair, And ringed horns which buffaloes did wear-- 1870. +_94 at the utmost point 1870; cancelled for when (where?) B. +_95 reed B.; weed 1870. +_99 after B.; upon 1870. +_100 burned within Marenghi's breast B.; + lived within Marenghi's heart 1870. +_101 and B.; or 1870. +_103 free B.; the 1870. +_109 freshes B.; omitted, 1870. +_118 by 1870; with B. +_119 dew-globes B.; dewdrops 1870. +_120 languished B.; vanished 1870. +_121 path, as on [bare] B.; footprints, as on 1870. +_122 silver B.; silence 1870. +_130 And in the moonless nights 1870; cancelled, B. dun B.; + dim 1870. +_131 Heaved 1870; cancelled, B. wide B.; + the 1870. star-impearled B.; omitted, 1870. +_132 Starting from dreams 1870; cancelled for He B. +_137 autumn B.; autumnal 1870. +_138 or B.; and 1870. +_155 pennon B.; pennons 1870. +_158 athwart B.; across 1870. + +*** + + +SONNET. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824. +Our text is that of the "Poetical Works", 1839.] + +Lift not the painted veil which those who live +Call Life: though unreal shapes be pictured there, +And it but mimic all we would believe +With colours idly spread,--behind, lurk Fear +And Hope, twin Destinies; who ever weave _5 +Their shadows, o'er the chasm, sightless and drear. +I knew one who had lifted it--he sought, +For his lost heart was tender, things to love +But found them not, alas! nor was there aught +The world contains, the which he could approve. _10 +Through the unheeding many he did move, +A splendour among shadows, a bright blot +Upon this gloomy scene, a Spirit that strove +For truth, and like the Preacher found it not. + +NOTES: +_6 Their...drear 1839; + The shadows, which the world calls substance, there 1824. +_7 who had lifted 1839; who lifted 1824. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: TO BYRON. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +O mighty mind, in whose deep stream this age +Shakes like a reed in the unheeding storm, +Why dost thou curb not thine own sacred rage? + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: APOSTROPHE TO SILENCE. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862. A transcript by +Mrs. Shelley, given to Charles Cowden Clarke, presents one or two +variants.] + +Silence! Oh, well are Death and Sleep and Thou +Three brethren named, the guardians gloomy-winged +Of one abyss, where life, and truth, and joy +Are swallowed up--yet spare me, Spirit, pity me, +Until the sounds I hear become my soul, _5 +And it has left these faint and weary limbs, +To track along the lapses of the air +This wandering melody until it rests +Among lone mountains in some... + +NOTES: +_4 Spirit 1862; O Spirit C.C.C. manuscript. +_8 This wandering melody 1862; + These wandering melodies... C.C.C. manuscript. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: THE LAKE'S MARGIN. + +[Published by W.M. Rossetti, 1870.] + +The fierce beasts of the woods and wildernesses +Track not the steps of him who drinks of it; +For the light breezes, which for ever fleet +Around its margin, heap the sand thereon. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'MY HEAD IS WILD WITH WEEPING'. + +[Published by W.M. Rossetti, 1870.] + +My head is wild with weeping for a grief +Which is the shadow of a gentle mind. +I walk into the air (but no relief +To seek,--or haply, if I sought, to find; +It came unsought);--to wonder that a chief _5 +Among men's spirits should be cold and blind. + +NOTE: +_4 find cj. A.C. Bradley. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: THE VINE-SHROUD. + +[Published by W.M. Rossetti, 1870.] + +Flourishing vine, whose kindling clusters glow +Beneath the autumnal sun, none taste of thee; +For thou dost shroud a ruin, and below +The rotting bones of dead antiquity. + +*** + + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1818, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +We often hear of persons disappointed by a first visit to Italy. This +was not Shelley's case. The aspect of its nature, its sunny sky, its +majestic storms, of the luxuriant vegetation of the country, and the +noble marble-built cities, enchanted him. The sight of the works of art +was full enjoyment and wonder. He had not studied pictures or statues +before; he now did so with the eye of taste, that referred not to the +rules of schools, but to those of Nature and truth. The first entrance +to Rome opened to him a scene of remains of antique grandeur that far +surpassed his expectations; and the unspeakable beauty of Naples and +its environs added to the impression he received of the transcendent +and glorious beauty of Italy. + +Our winter was spent at Naples. Here he wrote the fragments of +"Marenghi" and "The Woodman and the Nightingale", which he afterwards +threw aside. At this time, Shelley suffered greatly in health. He put +himself under the care of a medical man, who promised great things, and +made him endure severe bodily pain, without any good results. Constant +and poignant physical suffering exhausted him; and though he preserved +the appearance of cheerfulness, and often greatly enjoyed our +wanderings in the environs of Naples, and our excursions on its sunny +sea, yet many hours were passed when his thoughts, shadowed by illness, +became gloomy,--and then he escaped to solitude, and in verses, which +he hid from fear of wounding me, poured forth morbid but too natural +bursts of discontent and sadness. One looks back with unspeakable +regret and gnawing remorse to such periods; fancying that, had one been +more alive to the nature of his feelings, and more attentive to soothe +them, such would not have existed. And yet, enjoying as he appeared to +do every sight or influence of earth or sky, it was difficult to +imagine that any melancholy he showed was aught but the effect of the +constant pain to which he was a martyr. + +We lived in utter solitude. And such is often not the nurse of +cheerfulness; for then, at least with those who have been exposed to +adversity, the mind broods over its sorrows too intently; while the +society of the enlightened, the witty, and the wise, enables us to +forget ourselves by making us the sharers of the thoughts of others, +which is a portion of the philosophy of happiness. Shelley never liked +society in numbers,--it harassed and wearied him; but neither did he +like loneliness, and usually, when alone, sheltered himself against +memory and reflection in a book. But, with one or two whom he loved, he +gave way to wild and joyous spirits, or in more serious conversation +expounded his opinions with vivacity and eloquence. If an argument +arose, no man ever argued better. He was clear, logical, and earnest, +in supporting his own views; attentive, patient, and impartial, while +listening to those on the adverse side. Had not a wall of prejudice +been raised at this time between him and his countrymen, how many would +have sought the acquaintance of one whom to know was to love and to +revere! How many of the more enlightened of his contemporaries have +since regretted that they did not seek him! how very few knew his worth +while he lived! and, of those few, several were withheld by timidity or +envy from declaring their sense of it. But no man was ever more +enthusiastically loved--more looked up to, as one superior to his +fellows in intellectual endowments and moral worth, by the few who knew +him well, and had sufficient nobleness of soul to appreciate his +superiority. His excellence is now acknowledged; but, even while +admitted, not duly appreciated. For who, except those who were +acquainted with him, can imagine his unwearied benevolence, his +generosity, his systematic forbearance? And still less is his vast +superiority in intellectual attainments sufficiently understood--his +sagacity, his clear understanding, his learning, his prodigious memory. +All these as displayed in conversation, were known to few while he +lived, and are now silent in the tomb: + +'Ahi orbo mondo ingrato! +Gran cagion hai di dever pianger meco; +Che quel ben ch' era in te, perdut' hai seco.' + +*** + + +POEMS WRITTEN IN 1819. + + +LINES WRITTEN DURING THE CASTLEREAGH ADMINISTRATION. + +[Published by Medwin, "The Athenaeum", December 8, 1832; reprinted, +"Poetical Works", 1839. There is a transcript amongst the Harvard +manuscripts, and another in the possession of Mr. C.W. Frederickson of +Brooklyn. Variants from these two sources are given by Professor +Woodberry, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", Centenary Edition, +1893, volume 3 pages 225, 226. The transcripts are referred to in our +footnotes as Harvard and Fred. respectively.] + +1. +Corpses are cold in the tomb; +Stones on the pavement are dumb; +Abortions are dead in the womb, +And their mothers look pale--like the death-white shore +Of Albion, free no more. _5 + +2. +Her sons are as stones in the way-- +They are masses of senseless clay-- +They are trodden, and move not away,-- +The abortion with which SHE travaileth +Is Liberty, smitten to death. _10 + +3. +Then trample and dance, thou Oppressor! +For thy victim is no redresser; +Thou art sole lord and possessor +Of her corpses, and clods, and abortions--they pave +Thy path to the grave. _15 + +4. +Hearest thou the festival din +Of Death, and Destruction, and Sin, +And Wealth crying "Havoc!" within? +'Tis the bacchanal triumph that makes Truth dumb, +Thine Epithalamium. _20 + +5. +Ay, marry thy ghastly wife! +Let Fear and Disquiet and Strife +Spread thy couch in the chamber of Life! +Marry Ruin, thou Tyrant! and Hell be thy guide +To the bed of the bride! _25 + +NOTES: +_4 death-white Harvard, Fred.; white 1832, 1839. +_16 festival Harvard, Fred., 1839; festal 1832. +_19 that Fred.; which Harvard 1832. +_22 Disquiet Harvard, Fred., 1839; Disgust 1832. +_24 Hell Fred.; God Harvard, 1832, 1839. +_25 the bride Harvard, Fred., 1839; thy bride 1832. + +*** + + +SONG TO THE MEN OF ENGLAND. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.] + +1. +Men of England, wherefore plough +For the lords who lay ye low? +Wherefore weave with toil and care +The rich robes your tyrants wear? + +2. +Wherefore feed, and clothe, and save, _5 +From the cradle to the grave, +Those ungrateful drones who would +Drain your sweat--nay, drink your blood? + +3. +Wherefore, Bees of England, forge +Many a weapon, chain, and scourge, _10 +That these stingless drones may spoil +The forced produce of your toil? + +4. +Have ye leisure, comfort, calm, +Shelter, food, love's gentle balm? +Or what is it ye buy so dear _15 +With your pain and with your fear? + +5. +The seed ye sow, another reaps; +The wealth ye find, another keeps; +The robes ye weave, another wears; +The arms ye forge; another bears. _20 + +6. +Sow seed,--but let no tyrant reap; +Find wealth,--let no impostor heap; +Weave robes,--let not the idle wear; +Forge arms,--in your defence to bear. + +7. +Shrink to your cellars, holes, and cells; _25 +In halls ye deck another dwells. +Why shake the chains ye wrought? Ye see +The steel ye tempered glance on ye. + +8. +With plough and spade, and hoe and loom, +Trace your grave, and build your tomb, _30 +And weave your winding-sheet, till fair +England be your sepulchre. + +*** + + +SIMILES FOR TWO POLITICAL CHARACTERS OF 1819. + +[Published by Medwin, "The Athenaeum", August 25, 1832; reprinted by +Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839. Our title is that of 1839, 2nd +edition. The poem is found amongst the Harvard manuscripts, headed "To +S--th and O--gh".] + +1. +As from an ancestral oak +Two empty ravens sound their clarion, +Yell by yell, and croak by croak, +When they scent the noonday smoke +Of fresh human carrion:-- _5 + +2. +As two gibbering night-birds flit +From their bowers of deadly yew +Through the night to frighten it, +When the moon is in a fit, +And the stars are none, or few:-- _10 + +3. +As a shark and dog-fish wait +Under an Atlantic isle, +For the negro-ship, whose freight +Is the theme of their debate, +Wrinkling their red gills the while-- _15 + +4. +Are ye, two vultures sick for battle, +Two scorpions under one wet stone, +Two bloodless wolves whose dry throats rattle, +Two crows perched on the murrained cattle, +Two vipers tangled into one. _20 + +NOTE: +_7 yew 1832; hue 1839. + +** + + +FRAGMENT: TO THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +People of England, ye who toil and groan, +Who reap the harvests which are not your own, +Who weave the clothes which your oppressors wear, +And for your own take the inclement air; +Who build warm houses... _5 +And are like gods who give them all they have, +And nurse them from the cradle to the grave... + +... + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'WHAT MEN GAIN FAIRLY'. +(Perhaps connected with that immediately preceding (Forman).--ED.) + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition.] + +What men gain fairly--that they should possess, +And children may inherit idleness, +From him who earns it--This is understood; +Private injustice may be general good. +But he who gains by base and armed wrong, _5 +Or guilty fraud, or base compliances, +May be despoiled; even as a stolen dress +Is stripped from a convicted thief; and he +Left in the nakedness of infamy. + +*** + + +A NEW NATIONAL ANTHEM. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition.] + +1. +God prosper, speed,and save, +God raise from England's grave +Her murdered Queen! +Pave with swift victory +The steps of Liberty, _5 +Whom Britons own to be +Immortal Queen. + +2. +See, she comes throned on high, +On swift Eternity! +God save the Queen! _10 +Millions on millions wait, +Firm, rapid, and elate, +On her majestic state! +God save the Queen! + +3. +She is Thine own pure soul _15 +Moulding the mighty whole,-- +God save the Queen! +She is Thine own deep love +Rained down from Heaven above,-- +Wherever she rest or move, _20 +God save our Queen! + +4. +'Wilder her enemies +In their own dark disguise,-- +God save our Queen! +All earthly things that dare _25 +Her sacred name to bear, +Strip them, as kings are, bare; +God save the Queen! + +5. +Be her eternal throne +Built in our hearts alone-- _30 +God save the Queen! +Let the oppressor hold +Canopied seats of gold; +She sits enthroned of old +O'er our hearts Queen. _35 + +6. +Lips touched by seraphim +Breathe out the choral hymn +'God save the Queen!' +Sweet as if angels sang, +Loud as that trumpet's clang _40 +Wakening the world's dead gang,-- +God save the Queen! + +*** + + +SONNET: ENGLAND IN 1819. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.] + +An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying king,-- +Princes, the dregs of their dull race, who flow +Through public scorn,--mud from a muddy spring,-- +Rulers who neither see, nor feel, nor know, +But leech-like to their fainting country cling, _5 +Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow,-- +A people starved and stabbed in the untilled field,-- +An army, which liberticide and prey +Makes as a two-edged sword to all who wield,-- +Golden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay; _10 +Religion Christless, Godless--a book sealed; +A Senate,--Time's worst statute, unrepealed,-- +Are graves from which a glorious Phantom may +Burst, to illumine our tempestuous day. + +*** + + +AN ODE, WRITTEN OCTOBER, 1819, +BEFORE THE SPANIARDS HAD RECOVERED THEIR LIBERTY. + +[Published with "Prometheus Unbound", 1820.] + +Arise, arise, arise! +There is blood on the earth that denies ye bread; +Be your wounds like eyes +To weep for the dead, the dead, the dead. +What other grief were it just to pay? _5 +Your sons, your wives, your brethren, were they; +Who said they were slain on the battle day? + +Awaken, awaken, awaken! +The slave and the tyrant are twin-born foes; +Be the cold chains shaken _10 +To the dust where your kindred repose, repose: +Their bones in the grave will start and move, +When they hear the voices of those they love, +Most loud in the holy combat above. + +Wave, wave high the banner! _15 +When Freedom is riding to conquest by: +Though the slaves that fan her +Be Famine and Toil, giving sigh for sigh. +And ye who attend her imperial car, +Lift not your hands in the banded war, _20 +But in her defence whose children ye are. + +Glory, glory, glory, +To those who have greatly suffered and done! +Never name in story +Was greater than that which ye shall have won. _25 +Conquerors have conquered their foes alone, +Whose revenge, pride, and power they have overthrown +Ride ye, more victorious, over your own. + +Bind, bind every brow +With crownals of violet, ivy, and pine: _30 +Hide the blood-stains now +With hues which sweet Nature has made divine: +Green strength, azure hope, and eternity: +But let not the pansy among them be; +Ye were injured, and that means memory. _35 + +*** + + +CANCELLED STANZA. + +[Published in "The Times" (Rossetti).] + +Gather, O gather, +Foeman and friend in love and peace! +Waves sleep together +When the blasts that called them to battle, cease. +For fangless Power grown tame and mild _5 +Is at play with Freedom's fearless child-- +The dove and the serpent reconciled! + +*** + + +ODE TO HEAVEN. + +[Published with "Prometheus Unbound", 1820. Dated 'Florence, December, +1819' in Harvard manuscript (Woodberry). A transcript exists amongst +the Shelley manuscripts at the Bodleian Library. See Mr. C.D. Locock's +"Examination", etc., page 39.] + +CHORUS OF SPIRITS: + +FIRST SPIRIT: +Palace-roof of cloudless nights! +Paradise of golden lights! +Deep, immeasurable, vast, +Which art now, and which wert then +Of the Present and the Past, _5 +Of the eternal Where and When, +Presence-chamber, temple, home, +Ever-canopying dome, +Of acts and ages yet to come! + +Glorious shapes have life in thee, _10 +Earth, and all earth's company; +Living globes which ever throng +Thy deep chasms and wildernesses; +And green worlds that glide along; +And swift stars with flashing tresses; _15 +And icy moons most cold and bright, +And mighty suns beyond the night, +Atoms of intensest light. + +Even thy name is as a god, +Heaven! for thou art the abode _20 +Of that Power which is the glass +Wherein man his nature sees. +Generations as they pass +Worship thee with bended knees. +Their unremaining gods and they _25 +Like a river roll away: +Thou remainest such--alway!-- + +SECOND SPIRIT: +Thou art but the mind's first chamber, +Round which its young fancies clamber, +Like weak insects in a cave, _30 +Lighted up by stalactites; +But the portal of the grave, +Where a world of new delights +Will make thy best glories seem +But a dim and noonday gleam _35 +From the shadow of a dream! + +THIRD SPIRIT: +Peace! the abyss is wreathed with scorn +At your presumption, atom-born! +What is Heaven? and what are ye +Who its brief expanse inherit? _40 +What are suns and spheres which flee +With the instinct of that Spirit +Of which ye are but a part? +Drops which Nature's mighty heart +Drives through thinnest veins! Depart! _45 + +What is Heaven? a globe of dew, +Filling in the morning new +Some eyed flower whose young leaves waken +On an unimagined world: +Constellated suns unshaken, _50 +Orbits measureless, are furled +In that frail and fading sphere, +With ten millions gathered there, +To tremble, gleam, and disappear. + +*** + + +CANCELLED FRAGMENTS OF THE ODE TO HEAVEN. + +[Published by Mr. C.D. Locock, "Examination", etc., 1903.] + +The [living frame which sustains my soul] +Is [sinking beneath the fierce control] +Down through the lampless deep of song +I am drawn and driven along-- + +When a Nation screams aloud _5 +Like an eagle from the cloud +When a... + +... + +When the night... + +... + +Watch the look askance and old-- +See neglect, and falsehood fold... _10 + +*** + + +ODE TO THE WEST WIND. + +(This poem was conceived and chiefly written in a wood that skirts the +Arno, near Florence, and on a day when that tempestuous wind, whose +temperature is at once mild and animating, was collecting the vapours +which pour down the autumnal rains. They began, as I foresaw, at sunset +with a violent tempest of hail and rain, attended by that magnificent +thunder and lightning peculiar to the Cisalpine regions. + +The phenomenon alluded to at the conclusion of the third stanza is well +known to naturalists. The vegetation at the bottom of the sea, of +rivers, and of lakes, sympathizes with that of the land in the change +of seasons, and is consequently influenced by the winds which announce +it.--[SHELLEY'S NOTE.]) + +[Published with "Prometheus Unbound", 1820.] + +1. +O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being, +Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead +Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing, + +Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red, +Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou, _5 +Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed + +The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low, +Each like a corpse within its grave, until +Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow + +Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill _10 +(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air) +With living hues and odours plain and hill: + +Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere; +Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh, hear! + +2. +Thou on whose stream, mid the steep sky's commotion, _15 +Loose clouds like earth's decaying leaves are shed, +Shook from the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean, + +Angels of rain and lightning: there are spread +On the blue surface of thine aery surge, +Like the bright hair uplifted from the head _20 + +Of some fierce Maenad, even from the dim verge +Of the horizon to the zenith's height, +The locks of the approaching storm. Thou dirge + +Of the dying year, to which this closing night +Will be the dome of a vast sepulchre, _25 +Vaulted with all thy congregated might + +Of vapours, from whose solid atmosphere +Black rain, and fire, and hail will burst: oh, hear! + +3. +Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams +The blue Mediterranean, where he lay, _30 +Lulled by the coil of his crystalline streams, + +Beside a pumice isle in Baiae's bay, +And saw in sleep old palaces and towers +Quivering within the wave's intenser day, + +All overgrown with azure moss and flowers _35 +So sweet, the sense faints picturing them! Thou +For whose path the Atlantic's level powers + +Cleave themselves into chasms, while far below +The sea-blooms and the oozy woods which wear +The sapless foliage of the ocean, know _40 + +Thy voice, and suddenly grow gray with fear, +And tremble and despoil themselves: oh, hear! + +4. +If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear; +If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee; +A wave to pant beneath thy power, and share _45 + +The impulse of thy strength, only less free +Than thou, O uncontrollable! If even +I were as in my boyhood, and could be + +The comrade of thy wanderings over Heaven, +As then, when to outstrip thy skiey speed _50 +Scarce seemed a vision; I would ne'er have striven + +As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need. +Oh, lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud! +I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed! + +A heavy weight of hours has chained and bowed _55 +One too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud. + +5. +Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is: +What if my leaves are falling like its own! +The tumult of thy mighty harmonies + +Will take from both a deep, autumnal tone, _60 +Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce, +My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one! + +Drive my dead thoughts over the universe +Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth! +And, by the incantation of this verse, _65 + +Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth +Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind! +Be through my lips to unawakened earth + +The trumpet of a prophecy! O, Wind, +If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind? _70 + +*** + + +AN EXHORTATION. + +[Published with "Prometheus Unbound", 1820. Dated 'Pisa, April, 1820' +in Harvard manuscript (Woodberry), but assigned by Mrs. Shelley to +1819.] + +Chameleons feed on light and air: +Poets' food is love and fame: +If in this wide world of care +Poets could but find the same +With as little toil as they, _5 +Would they ever change their hue +As the light chameleons do, +Suiting it to every ray +Twenty times a day? + +Poets are on this cold earth, _10 +As chameleons might be, +Hidden from their early birth +in a cave beneath the sea; +Where light is, chameleons change: +Where love is not, poets do: _15 +Fame is love disguised: if few +Find either, never think it strange +That poets range. + +Yet dare not stain with wealth or power +A poet's free and heavenly mind: _20 +If bright chameleons should devour +Any food but beams and wind, +They would grow as earthly soon +As their brother lizards are. +Children of a sunnier star, _25 +Spirits from beyond the moon, +Oh, refuse the boon! + +*** + + +THE INDIAN SERENADE. + +[Published, with the title, "Song written for an Indian Air", in "The +Liberal", 2, 1822. Reprinted ("Lines to an Indian Air") by Mrs. +Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824. The poem is included in the Harvard +manuscript book, and there is a description by Robert Browning of an +autograph copy presenting some variations from the text of 1824. See +Leigh Hunt's "Correspondence", 2, pages 264-8.] + +1. +I arise from dreams of thee +In the first sweet sleep of night, +When the winds are breathing low, +And the stars are shining bright: +I arise from dreams of thee, _5 +And a spirit in my feet +Hath led me--who knows how? +To thy chamber window, Sweet! + +2. +The wandering airs they faint +On the dark, the silent stream-- _10 +The Champak odours fail +Like sweet thoughts in a dream; +The nightingale's complaint, +It dies upon her heart;-- +As I must on thine, _15 +Oh, beloved as thou art! + +3. +Oh lift me from the grass! +I die! I faint! I fail! +Let thy love in kisses rain +On my lips and eyelids pale. _20 +My cheek is cold and white, alas! +My heart beats loud and fast;-- +Oh! press it to thine own again, +Where it will break at last. + +NOTES: +_3 Harvard manuscript omits When. +_4 shining]burning Harvard manuscript, 1822. +_7 Hath led Browning manuscript, 1822; + Has borne Harvard manuscript; Has led 1824. +_11 The Champak Harvard manuscript, 1822, 1824; + And the Champak's Browning manuscript. +_15 As I must on 1822, 1824; + As I must die on Harvard manuscript, 1839, 1st edition. +_16 Oh, beloved Browning manuscript, Harvard manuscript, 1839, 1st edition; + Beloved 1822, 1824. +_23 press it to thine own Browning manuscript; + press it close to thine Harvard manuscript, 1824, 1839, 1st edition; + press me to thine own, 1822. + +*** + + +CANCELLED PASSAGE. + +[Published by W.M. Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works", 1870.] + +O pillow cold and wet with tears! +Thou breathest sleep no more! + +*** + + +TO SOPHIA [MISS STACEY]. + +[Published by W.M. Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works", 1870.] + +1. +Thou art fair, and few are fairer +Of the Nymphs of earth or ocean; +They are robes that fit the wearer-- +Those soft limbs of thine, whose motion +Ever falls and shifts and glances _5 +As the life within them dances. + +2. +Thy deep eyes, a double Planet, +Gaze the wisest into madness +With soft clear fire,--the winds that fan it +Are those thoughts of tender gladness _10 +Which, like zephyrs on the billow, +Make thy gentle soul their pillow. + +3. +If, whatever face thou paintest +In those eyes, grows pale with pleasure, +If the fainting soul is faintest _15 +When it hears thy harp's wild measure, +Wonder not that when thou speakest +Of the weak my heart is weakest. + +4. +As dew beneath the wind of morning, +As the sea which whirlwinds waken, _20 +As the birds at thunder's warning, +As aught mute yet deeply shaken, +As one who feels an unseen spirit +Is my heart when thine is near it. + +*** + + +TO WILLIAM SHELLEY. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824. +The fragment included in the Harvard manuscript book.] + +(With what truth may I say-- +Roma! Roma! Roma! +Non e piu come era prima!) + +1. +My lost William, thou in whom +Some bright spirit lived, and did +That decaying robe consume +Which its lustre faintly hid,-- +Here its ashes find a tomb, _5 +But beneath this pyramid +Thou art not--if a thing divine +Like thee can die, thy funeral shrine +Is thy mother's grief and mine. + +2. +Where art thou, my gentle child? _10 +Let me think thy spirit feeds, +With its life intense and mild, +The love of living leaves and weeds +Among these tombs and ruins wild;-- +Let me think that through low seeds _15 +Of sweet flowers and sunny grass +Into their hues and scents may pass +A portion-- + +NOTE: + +Motto _1 may I Harvard manuscript; I may 1824. +_12 With Harvard manuscript, Mrs. Shelley, 1847; Within 1824, 1839. +_16 Of sweet Harvard manuscript; Of the sweet 1824, 1839. + +*** + + +TO WILLIAM SHELLEY. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.] + +Thy little footsteps on the sands +Of a remote and lonely shore; +The twinkling of thine infant hands, +Where now the worm will feed no more; +Thy mingled look of love and glee _5 +When we returned to gaze on thee-- + +*** + + +TO MARY SHELLEY. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition.] + +My dearest Mary, wherefore hast thou gone, +And left me in this dreary world alone? +Thy form is here indeed--a lovely one-- +But thou art fled, gone down the dreary road, +That leads to Sorrow's most obscure abode; _5 +Thou sittest on the hearth of pale despair, +Where +For thine own sake I cannot follow thee. + +*** + + +TO MARY SHELLEY. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition.] + +The world is dreary, +And I am weary +Of wandering on without thee, Mary; +A joy was erewhile +In thy voice and thy smile, _5 +And 'tis gone, when I should be gone too, Mary. + +*** + + +ON THE MEDUSA OF LEONARDO DA VINCI IN THE FLORENTINE GALLERY. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +1. +It lieth, gazing on the midnight sky, +Upon the cloudy mountain-peak supine; +Below, far lands are seen tremblingly; +Its horror and its beauty are divine. +Upon its lips and eyelids seems to lie _5 +Loveliness like a shadow, from which shine, +Fiery and lurid, struggling underneath, +The agonies of anguish and of death. + +2. +Yet it is less the horror than the grace +Which turns the gazer's spirit into stone, _10 +Whereon the lineaments of that dead face +Are graven, till the characters be grown +Into itself, and thought no more can trace; +'Tis the melodious hue of beauty thrown +Athwart the darkness and the glare of pain, +Which humanize and harmonize the strain. _15 + +3. +And from its head as from one body grow, +As ... grass out of a watery rock, +Hairs which are vipers, and they curl and flow +And their long tangles in each other lock, _20 +And with unending involutions show +Their mailed radiance, as it were to mock +The torture and the death within, and saw +The solid air with many a ragged jaw. + +4. +And, from a stone beside, a poisonous eft _25 +Peeps idly into those Gorgonian eyes; +Whilst in the air a ghastly bat, bereft +Of sense, has flitted with a mad surprise +Out of the cave this hideous light had cleft, +And he comes hastening like a moth that hies _30 +After a taper; and the midnight sky +Flares, a light more dread than obscurity. + +5. +'Tis the tempestuous loveliness of terror; +For from the serpents gleams a brazen glare +Kindled by that inextricable error, _35 +Which makes a thrilling vapour of the air +Become a ... and ever-shifting mirror +Of all the beauty and the terror there-- +A woman's countenance, with serpent-locks, +Gazing in death on Heaven from those wet rocks. _40 + +NOTES: +_5 seems 1839; seem 1824. +_6 shine]shrine 1824, 1839. +_26 those 1824; these 1839. + +*** + + +LOVE'S PHILOSOPHY. + +[Published by Leigh Hunt, "The Indicator", December 22, 1819. Reprinted +by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824. Included in the Harvard +manuscript book, where it is headed "An Anacreontic", and dated +'January, 1820.' Written by Shelley in a copy of Hunt's "Literary +Pocket-Book", 1819, and presented to Sophia Stacey, December 29, 1820.] + +1. +The fountains mingle with the river +And the rivers with the Ocean, +The winds of Heaven mix for ever +With a sweet emotion; +Nothing in the world is single; _5 +All things by a law divine +In one spirit meet and mingle. +Why not I with thine?-- + +2. +See the mountains kiss high Heaven +And the waves clasp one another; _10 +No sister-flower would be forgiven +If it disdained its brother; +And the sunlight clasps the earth +And the moonbeams kiss the sea: +What is all this sweet work worth _15 +If thou kiss not me? + +NOTES: +_3 mix for ever 1819, Stacey manuscript; + meet together, Harvard manuscript. +_7 In one spirit meet and Stacey manuscript; + In one another's being 1819, Harvard manuscript. +_11 No sister 1824, Harvard and Stacey manuscripts; No leaf or 1819. +_12 disdained its 1824, Harvard and Stacey manuscripts; + disdained to kiss its 1819. +_15 is all this sweet work Stacey manuscript; + were these examples Harvard manuscript; + are all these kissings 1819, 1824. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'FOLLOW TO THE DEEP WOOD'S WEEDS'. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +Follow to the deep wood's weeds, +Follow to the wild-briar dingle, +Where we seek to intermingle, +And the violet tells her tale +To the odour-scented gale, _5 +For they two have enough to do +Of such work as I and you. + +*** + + +THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +At the creation of the Earth +Pleasure, that divinest birth, +From the soil of Heaven did rise, +Wrapped in sweet wild melodies-- +Like an exhalation wreathing _5 +To the sound of air low-breathing +Through Aeolian pines, which make +A shade and shelter to the lake +Whence it rises soft and slow; +Her life-breathing [limbs] did flow _10 +In the harmony divine +Of an ever-lengthening line +Which enwrapped her perfect form +With a beauty clear and warm. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: LOVE THE UNIVERSE TO-DAY. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.] + +And who feels discord now or sorrow? +Love is the universe to-day-- +These are the slaves of dim to-morrow, +Darkening Life's labyrinthine way. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'A GENTLE STORY OF TWO LOVERS YOUNG'. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition.] + +A gentle story of two lovers young, +Who met in innocence and died in sorrow, +And of one selfish heart, whose rancour clung +Like curses on them; are ye slow to borrow +The lore of truth from such a tale? _5 +Or in this world's deserted vale, +Do ye not see a star of gladness +Pierce the shadows of its sadness,-- +When ye are cold, that love is a light sent +From Heaven, which none shall quench, to cheer the innocent? _10 + +NOTE: +_9 cold]told cj. A.C. Bradley. + For the metre cp. Fragment: To a Friend Released from Prison. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: LOVE'S TENDER ATMOSPHERE. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition.] + +There is a warm and gentle atmosphere +About the form of one we love, and thus +As in a tender mist our spirits are +Wrapped in the ... of that which is to us +The health of life's own life-- _5 + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: WEDDED SOULS. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +I am as a spirit who has dwelt +Within his heart of hearts, and I have felt +His feelings, and have thought his thoughts, and known +The inmost converse of his soul, the tone +Unheard but in the silence of his blood, _5 +When all the pulses in their multitude +Image the trembling calm of summer seas. +I have unlocked the golden melodies +Of his deep soul, as with a master-key, +And loosened them and bathed myself therein-- _10 +Even as an eagle in a thunder-mist +Clothing his wings with lightning. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'IS IT THAT IN SOME BRIGHTER SPHERE'. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +Is it that in some brighter sphere +We part from friends we meet with here? +Or do we see the Future pass +Over the Present's dusky glass? +Or what is that that makes us seem _5 +To patch up fragments of a dream, +Part of which comes true, and part +Beats and trembles in the heart? + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: SUFFICIENT UNTO THE DAY. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +Is not to-day enough? Why do I peer +Into the darkness of the day to come? +Is not to-morrow even as yesterday? +And will the day that follows change thy doom? +Few flowers grow upon thy wintry way; _5 +And who waits for thee in that cheerless home +Whence thou hast fled, whither thou must return +Charged with the load that makes thee faint and mourn? + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'YE GENTLE VISITATIONS OF CALM THOUGHT'. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.] + +Ye gentle visitations of calm thought-- +Moods like the memories of happier earth, +Which come arrayed in thoughts of little worth, +Like stars in clouds by the weak winds enwrought,-- +But that the clouds depart and stars remain, _5 +While they remain, and ye, alas, depart! + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: MUSIC AND SWEET POETRY. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition.] + +How sweet it is to sit and read the tales +Of mighty poets and to hear the while +Sweet music, which when the attention fails +Fills the dim pause-- + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: THE SEPULCHRE OF MEMORY. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.] + +And where is truth? On tombs? for such to thee +Has been my heart--and thy dead memory +Has lain from childhood, many a changeful year, +Unchangingly preserved and buried there. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'WHEN A LOVER CLASPS HIS FAIREST'. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition.] + +1. +When a lover clasps his fairest, +Then be our dread sport the rarest. +Their caresses were like the chaff +In the tempest, and be our laugh +His despair--her epitaph! _5 + +2. +When a mother clasps her child, +Watch till dusty Death has piled +His cold ashes on the clay; +She has loved it many a day-- +She remains,--it fades away. _10 + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'WAKE THE SERPENT NOT'. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition.] + +Wake the serpent not--lest he +Should not know the way to go,-- +Let him crawl which yet lies sleeping +Through the deep grass of the meadow! +Not a bee shall hear him creeping, _5 +Not a may-fly shall awaken +From its cradling blue-bell shaken, +Not the starlight as he's sliding +Through the grass with silent gliding. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: RAIN. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition.] + +The fitful alternations of the rain, +When the chill wind, languid as with pain +Of its own heavy moisture, here and there +Drives through the gray and beamless atmosphere. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: A TALE UNTOLD. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition.] + +One sung of thee who left the tale untold, +Like the false dawns which perish in the bursting; +Like empty cups of wrought and daedal gold, +Which mock the lips with air, when they are thirsting. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: TO ITALY. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +As the sunrise to the night, +As the north wind to the clouds, +As the earthquake's fiery flight, +Ruining mountain solitudes, +Everlasting Italy, _5 +Be those hopes and fears on thee. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: WINE OF THE FAIRIES. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.] + +I am drunk with the honey wine +Of the moon-unfolded eglantine, +Which fairies catch in hyacinth bowls. +The bats, the dormice, and the moles +Sleep in the walls or under the sward _5 +Of the desolate castle yard; +And when 'tis spilt on the summer earth +Or its fumes arise among the dew, +Their jocund dreams are full of mirth, +They gibber their joy in sleep; for few _10 +Of the fairies bear those bowls so new! + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: A ROMAN'S CHAMBER. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition.] + +1. +In the cave which wild weeds cover +Wait for thine aethereal lover; +For the pallid moon is waning, +O'er the spiral cypress hanging +And the moon no cloud is staining. _5 + +2. +It was once a Roman's chamber, +Where he kept his darkest revels, +And the wild weeds twine and clamber; +It was then a chasm for devils. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: ROME AND NATURE. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition.] + +Rome has fallen, ye see it lying +Heaped in undistinguished ruin: +Nature is alone undying. + +*** + + +VARIATION OF THE SONG OF THE MOON. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.] + +("PROMETHEUS UNBOUND", ACT 4.) + +As a violet's gentle eye +Gazes on the azure sky +Until its hue grows like what it beholds; +As a gray and empty mist +Lies like solid amethyst _5 +Over the western mountain it enfolds, +When the sunset sleeps +Upon its snow; +As a strain of sweetest sound +Wraps itself the wind around _10 +Until the voiceless wind be music too; +As aught dark, vain, and dull, +Basking in what is beautiful, +Is full of light and love-- + +*** + + +CANCELLED STANZA OF THE MASK OF ANARCHY. + +[Published by H. Buxton Forman, "The Mask of Anarchy" ("Facsimile of +Shelley's manuscript"), 1887.] + +(FOR WHICH STANZAS 68, 69 HAVE BEEN SUBSTITUTED.) + +From the cities where from caves, +Like the dead from putrid graves, +Troops of starvelings gliding come, +Living Tenants of a tomb. + +*** + + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1819, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +Shelley loved the People; and respected them as often more virtuous, as +always more suffering, and therefore more deserving of sympathy, than +the great. He believed that a clash between the two classes of society +was inevitable, and he eagerly ranged himself on the people's side. He +had an idea of publishing a series of poems adapted expressly to +commemorate their circumstances and wrongs. He wrote a few; but, in +those days of prosecution for libel, they could not be printed. They +are not among the best of his productions, a writer being always +shackled when he endeavours to write down to the comprehension of those +who could not understand or feel a highly imaginative style; but they +show his earnestness, and with what heart-felt compassion he went home +to the direct point of injury--that oppression is detestable as being +the parent of starvation, nakedness, and ignorance. Besides these +outpourings of compassion and indignation, he had meant to adorn the +cause he loved with loftier poetry of glory and triumph: such is the +scope of the "Ode to the Assertors of Liberty". He sketched also a new +version of our national anthem, as addressed to Liberty. + +*** + + +POEMS WRITTEN IN 1820. + + +THE SENSITIVE PLANT. + +[Composed at Pisa, early in 1820 (dated 'March, 1820,' in Harvard +manuscript), and published, with "Prometheus Unbound", the same year: +included in the Harvard College manuscript book. Reprinted in the +"Poetical Works", 1839, both editions.] + +PART 1. + +A Sensitive Plant in a garden grew, +And the young winds fed it with silver dew, +And it opened its fan-like leaves to the light. +And closed them beneath the kisses of Night. + +And the Spring arose on the garden fair, _5 +Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere; +And each flower and herb on Earth's dark breast +Rose from the dreams of its wintry rest. + +But none ever trembled and panted with bliss +In the garden, the field, or the wilderness, _10 +Like a doe in the noontide with love's sweet want, +As the companionless Sensitive Plant. + +The snowdrop, and then the violet, +Arose from the ground with warm rain wet, +And their breath was mixed with fresh odour, sent _15 +From the turf, like the voice and the instrument. + +Then the pied wind-flowers and the tulip tall, +And narcissi, the fairest among them all, +Who gaze on their eyes in the stream's recess, +Till they die of their own dear loveliness; _20 + +And the Naiad-like lily of the vale, +Whom youth makes so fair and passion so pale +That the light of its tremulous bells is seen +Through their pavilions of tender green; + +And the hyacinth purple, and white, and blue, _25 +Which flung from its bells a sweet peal anew +Of music so delicate, soft, and intense, +It was felt like an odour within the sense; + +And the rose like a nymph to the bath addressed, +Which unveiled the depth of her glowing breast, _30 +Till, fold after fold, to the fainting air +The soul of her beauty and love lay bare: + +And the wand-like lily, which lifted up, +As a Maenad, its moonlight-coloured cup, +Till the fiery star, which is its eye, +Gazed through clear dew on the tender sky; _35 + +And the jessamine faint, and the sweet tuberose, +The sweetest flower for scent that blows; +And all rare blossoms from every clime +Grew in that garden in perfect prime. _40 + +And on the stream whose inconstant bosom +Was pranked, under boughs of embowering blossom, +With golden and green light, slanting through +Their heaven of many a tangled hue, + +Broad water-lilies lay tremulously, _45 +And starry river-buds glimmered by, +And around them the soft stream did glide and dance +With a motion of sweet sound and radiance. + +And the sinuous paths of lawn and of moss, +Which led through the garden along and across, _50 +Some open at once to the sun and the breeze, +Some lost among bowers of blossoming trees, + +Were all paved with daisies and delicate bells +As fair as the fabulous asphodels, +And flow'rets which, drooping as day drooped too, _55 +Fell into pavilions, white, purple, and blue, +To roof the glow-worm from the evening dew. + +And from this undefiled Paradise +The flowers (as an infant's awakening eyes +Smile on its mother, whose singing sweet _60 +Can first lull, and at last must awaken it), + +When Heaven's blithe winds had unfolded them, +As mine-lamps enkindle a hidden gem, +Shone smiling to Heaven, and every one _65 +Shared joy in the light of the gentle sun; + +For each one was interpenetrated +With the light and the odour its neighbour shed, +Like young lovers whom youth and love make dear +Wrapped and filled by their mutual atmosphere. + +But the Sensitive Plant which could give small fruit _70 +Of the love which it felt from the leaf to the root, +Received more than all, it loved more than ever, +Where none wanted but it, could belong to the giver,-- + +For the Sensitive Plant has no bright flower; +Radiance and odour are not its dower; _75 +It loves, even like Love, its deep heart is full, +It desires what it has not, the Beautiful! + +The light winds which from unsustaining wings +Shed the music of many murmurings; +The beams which dart from many a star _80 +Of the flowers whose hues they bear afar; + +The plumed insects swift and free, +Like golden boats on a sunny sea, +Laden with light and odour, which pass +Over the gleam of the living grass; _85 + +The unseen clouds of the dew, which lie +Like fire in the flowers till the sun rides high, +Then wander like spirits among the spheres, +Each cloud faint with the fragrance it bears; + +The quivering vapours of dim noontide, _90 +Which like a sea o'er the warm earth glide, +In which every sound, and odour, and beam, +Move, as reeds in a single stream; + +Each and all like ministering angels were +For the Sensitive Plant sweet joy to bear, _95 +Whilst the lagging hours of the day went by +Like windless clouds o'er a tender sky. + +And when evening descended from Heaven above, +And the Earth was all rest, and the air was all love, +And delight, though less bright, was far more deep, _100 +And the day's veil fell from the world of sleep, + +And the beasts, and the birds, and the insects were drowned +In an ocean of dreams without a sound; +Whose waves never mark, though they ever impress +The light sand which paves it, consciousness; _105 + +(Only overhead the sweet nightingale +Ever sang more sweet as the day might fail, +And snatches of its Elysian chant +Were mixed with the dreams of the Sensitive Plant);-- + +The Sensitive Plant was the earliest _110 +Upgathered into the bosom of rest; +A sweet child weary of its delight, +The feeblest and yet the favourite, +Cradled within the embrace of Night. + +NOTES: +_6 Like the Spirit of Love felt 1820; + And the Spirit of Love felt 1839, 1st edition; + And the Spirit of Love fell 1839, 2nd edition. +_49 and of moss]and moss Harvard manuscript. +_82 The]And the Harvard manuscript. + + +PART 2. + +There was a Power in this sweet place, +An Eve in this Eden; a ruling Grace +Which to the flowers, did they waken or dream, +Was as God is to the starry scheme. + +A Lady, the wonder of her kind, _5 +Whose form was upborne by a lovely mind +Which, dilating, had moulded her mien and motion +Like a sea-flower unfolded beneath the ocean, + +Tended the garden from morn to even: +And the meteors of that sublunar Heaven, _10 +Like the lamps of the air when Night walks forth, +Laughed round her footsteps up from the Earth! + +She had no companion of mortal race, +But her tremulous breath and her flushing face +Told, whilst the morn kissed the sleep from her eyes, _15 +That her dreams were less slumber than Paradise: + +As if some bright Spirit for her sweet sake +Had deserted Heaven while the stars were awake, +As if yet around her he lingering were, +Though the veil of daylight concealed him from her. _20 + +Her step seemed to pity the grass it pressed; +You might hear by the heaving of her breast, +That the coming and going of the wind +Brought pleasure there and left passion behind. + +And wherever her aery footstep trod, _25 +Her trailing hair from the grassy sod +Erased its light vestige, with shadowy sweep, +Like a sunny storm o'er the dark green deep. + +I doubt not the flowers of that garden sweet +Rejoiced in the sound of her gentle feet; _30 +I doubt not they felt the spirit that came +From her glowing fingers through all their frame. + +She sprinkled bright water from the stream +On those that were faint with the sunny beam; +And out of the cups of the heavy flowers _35 +She emptied the rain of the thunder-showers. + +She lifted their heads with her tender hands, +And sustained them with rods and osier-bands; +If the flowers had been her own infants, she +Could never have nursed them more tenderly. _40 + +And all killing insects and gnawing worms, +And things of obscene and unlovely forms, +She bore, in a basket of Indian woof, +Into the rough woods far aloof,-- + +In a basket, of grasses and wild-flowers full, _45 +The freshest her gentle hands could pull +For the poor banished insects, whose intent, +Although they did ill, was innocent. + +But the bee and the beamlike ephemeris +Whose path is the lightning's, and soft moths that kiss _50 +The sweet lips of the flowers, and harm not, did she +Make her attendant angels be. + +And many an antenatal tomb, +Where butterflies dream of the life to come, +She left clinging round the smooth and dark _55 +Edge of the odorous cedar bark. + +This fairest creature from earliest Spring +Thus moved through the garden ministering +Mi the sweet season of Summertide, +And ere the first leaf looked brown--she died! _60 + +NOTES: +_15 morn Harvard manuscript, 1839; moon 1820. +_23 and going 1820; and the going Harvard manuscript, 1839. +_59 All 1820, 1839; Through all Harvard manuscript. + +PART 3. + +Three days the flowers of the garden fair, +Like stars when the moon is awakened, were, +Or the waves of Baiae, ere luminous +She floats up through the smoke of Vesuvius. + +And on the fourth, the Sensitive Plant _5 +Felt the sound of the funeral chant, +And the steps of the bearers, heavy and slow, +And the sobs of the mourners, deep and low; + +The weary sound and the heavy breath, +And the silent motions of passing death, _10 +And the smell, cold, oppressive, and dank, +Sent through the pores of the coffin-plank; + +The dark grass, and the flowers among the grass, +Were bright with tears as the crowd did pass; +From their sighs the wind caught a mournful tone, _15 +And sate in the pines, and gave groan for groan. + +The garden, once fair, became cold and foul, +Like the corpse of her who had been its soul, +Which at first was lovely as if in sleep, +Then slowly changed, till it grew a heap _20 +To make men tremble who never weep. + +Swift Summer into the Autumn flowed, +And frost in the mist of the morning rode, +Though the noonday sun looked clear and bright, +Mocking the spoil of the secret night. _25 + +The rose-leaves, like flakes of crimson snow, +Paved the turf and the moss below. +The lilies were drooping, and white, and wan, +Like the head and the skin of a dying man. + +And Indian plants, of scent and hue _30 +The sweetest that ever were fed on dew, +Leaf by leaf, day after day, +Were massed into the common clay. + +And the leaves, brown, yellow, and gray, and red, +And white with the whiteness of what is dead, _35 +Like troops of ghosts on the dry wind passed; +Their whistling noise made the birds aghast. + +And the gusty winds waked the winged seeds, +Out of their birthplace of ugly weeds, +Till they clung round many a sweet flower's stem, _40 +Which rotted into the earth with them. + +The water-blooms under the rivulet +Fell from the stalks on which they were set; +And the eddies drove them here and there, +As the winds did those of the upper air. _45 + +Then the rain came down, and the broken stalks +Were bent and tangled across the walks; +And the leafless network of parasite bowers +Massed into ruin; and all sweet flowers. + +Between the time of the wind and the snow _50 +All loathliest weeds began to grow, +Whose coarse leaves were splashed with many a speck, +Like the water-snake's belly and the toad's back. + +And thistles, and nettles, and darnels rank, +And the dock, and henbane, and hemlock dank, _55 +Stretched out its long and hollow shank, +And stifled the air till the dead wind stank. + +And plants, at whose names the verse feels loath, +Filled the place with a monstrous undergrowth, +Prickly, and pulpous, and blistering, and blue, _60 +Livid, and starred with a lurid dew. + +And agarics, and fungi, with mildew and mould +Started like mist from the wet ground cold; +Pale, fleshy, as if the decaying dead +With a spirit of growth had been animated! _65 + +Spawn, weeds, and filth, a leprous scum, +Made the running rivulet thick and dumb, +And at its outlet flags huge as stakes +Dammed it up with roots knotted like water-snakes. + +And hour by hour, when the air was still, _70 +The vapours arose which have strength to kill; +At morn they were seen, at noon they were felt, +At night they were darkness no star could melt. + +And unctuous meteors from spray to spray +Crept and flitted in broad noonday _75 +Unseen; every branch on which they alit +By a venomous blight was burned and bit. + +The Sensitive Plant, like one forbid, +Wept, and the tears within each lid +Of its folded leaves, which together grew, _80 +Were changed to a blight of frozen glue. + +For the leaves soon fell, and the branches soon +By the heavy axe of the blast were hewn; +The sap shrank to the root through every pore +As blood to a heart that will beat no more. _85 + +For Winter came: the wind was his whip: +One choppy finger was on his lip: +He had torn the cataracts from the hills +And they clanked at his girdle like manacles; + +His breath was a chain which without a sound _90 +The earth, and the air, and the water bound; +He came, fiercely driven, in his chariot-throne +By the tenfold blasts of the Arctic zone. + +Then the weeds which were forms of living death +Fled from the frost to the earth beneath. _95 +Their decay and sudden flight from frost +Was but like the vanishing of a ghost! + +And under the roots of the Sensitive Plant +The moles and the dormice died for want: +The birds dropped stiff from the frozen air _100 +And were caught in the branches naked and bare. + +First there came down a thawing rain +And its dull drops froze on the boughs again; +Then there steamed up a freezing dew +Which to the drops of the thaw-rain grew; _105 + +And a northern whirlwind, wandering about +Like a wolf that had smelt a dead child out, +Shook the boughs thus laden, and heavy, and stiff, +And snapped them off with his rigid griff. + +When Winter had gone and Spring came back _110 +The Sensitive Plant was a leafless wreck; +But the mandrakes, and toadstools, and docks, and darnels, +Rose like the dead from their ruined charnels. + +CONCLUSION. + +Whether the Sensitive Plant, or that +Which within its boughs like a Spirit sat, _115 +Ere its outward form had known decay, +Now felt this change, I cannot say. + +Whether that Lady's gentle mind, +No longer with the form combined +Which scattered love, as stars do light, _120 +Found sadness, where it left delight, + +I dare not guess; but in this life +Of error, ignorance, and strife, +Where nothing is, but all things seem, +And we the shadows of the dream, _125 + +It is a modest creed, and yet +Pleasant if one considers it, +To own that death itself must be, +Like all the rest, a mockery. + +That garden sweet, that lady fair, _130 +And all sweet shapes and odours there, +In truth have never passed away: +'Tis we, 'tis ours, are changed; not they. + +For love, and beauty, and delight, +There is no death nor change: their might _135 +Exceeds our organs, which endure +No light, being themselves obscure. + +NOTES: +_19 lovely Harvard manuscript, 1839; lively 1820. +_23 of the morning 1820, 1839; of morning Harvard manuscript. +_26 snow Harvard manuscript, 1839; now 1820. +_28 And lilies were drooping, white and wan Harvard manuscript. +_32 Leaf by leaf, day after day Harvard manuscript; + Leaf after leaf, day after day 1820; + Leaf after leaf, day by day 1839. +_63 mist]mists Harvard manuscript. +_96 and sudden flight]and their sudden flight the Harvard manuscript. +_98 And under]Under Harvard manuscript. +_114 Whether]And if Harvard manuscript. +_118 Whether]Or if Harvard manuscript. + +*** + + +CANCELLED PASSAGE. + +[This stanza followed 3, 62-65 in the editio princeps, 1820, but was +omitted by Mrs. Shelley from all editions from 1839 onwards. It is +cancelled in the Harvard manuscript.] + +Their moss rotted off them, flake by flake, +Till the thick stalk stuck like a murderer's stake, +Where rags of loose flesh yet tremble on high, +Infecting the winds that wander by. + +*** + + +A VISION OF THE SEA. + +[Composed at Pisa early in 1820, and published with "Prometheus +Unbound" in the same year. A transcript in Mrs. Shelley's handwriting +is included in the Harvard manuscript book, where it is dated 'April, +1820.'] + +'Tis the terror of tempest. The rags of the sail +Are flickering in ribbons within the fierce gale: +From the stark night of vapours the dim rain is driven, +And when lightning is loosed, like a deluge from Heaven, +She sees the black trunks of the waterspouts spin _5 +And bend, as if Heaven was ruining in, +Which they seemed to sustain with their terrible mass +As if ocean had sunk from beneath them: they pass +To their graves in the deep with an earthquake of sound, +And the waves and the thunders, made silent around, _10 +Leave the wind to its echo. The vessel, now tossed +Through the low-trailing rack of the tempest, is lost +In the skirts of the thunder-cloud: now down the sweep +Of the wind-cloven wave to the chasm of the deep +It sinks, and the walls of the watery vale _15 +Whose depths of dread calm are unmoved by the gale, +Dim mirrors of ruin, hang gleaming about; +While the surf, like a chaos of stars, like a rout +Of death-flames, like whirlpools of fire-flowing iron, +With splendour and terror the black ship environ, _20 +Or like sulphur-flakes hurled from a mine of pale fire +In fountains spout o'er it. In many a spire +The pyramid-billows with white points of brine +In the cope of the lightning inconstantly shine, +As piercing the sky from the floor of the sea. _25 +The great ship seems splitting! it cracks as a tree, +While an earthquake is splintering its root, ere the blast +Of the whirlwind that stripped it of branches has passed. +The intense thunder-balls which are raining from Heaven +Have shattered its mast, and it stands black and riven. _30 +The chinks suck destruction. The heavy dead hulk +On the living sea rolls an inanimate bulk, +Like a corpse on the clay which is hungering to fold +Its corruption around it. Meanwhile, from the hold, +One deck is burst up by the waters below, _35 +And it splits like the ice when the thaw-breezes blow +O'er the lakes of the desert! Who sit on the other? +Is that all the crew that lie burying each other, +Like the dead in a breach, round the foremast? Are those +Twin tigers, who burst, when the waters arose, _40 +In the agony of terror, their chains in the hold; +(What now makes them tame, is what then made them bold;) +Who crouch, side by side, and have driven, like a crank, +The deep grip of their claws through the vibrating plank +Are these all? Nine weeks the tall vessel had lain _45 +On the windless expanse of the watery plain, +Where the death-darting sun cast no shadow at noon, +And there seemed to be fire in the beams of the moon, +Till a lead-coloured fog gathered up from the deep, +Whose breath was quick pestilence; then, the cold sleep _50 +Crept, like blight through the ears of a thick field of corn, +O'er the populous vessel. And even and morn, +With their hammocks for coffins the seamen aghast +Like dead men the dead limbs of their comrades cast +Down the deep, which closed on them above and around, _55 +And the sharks and the dogfish their grave-clothes unbound, +And were glutted like Jews with this manna rained down +From God on their wilderness. One after one +The mariners died; on the eve of this day, +When the tempest was gathering in cloudy array, _60 +But seven remained. Six the thunder has smitten, +And they lie black as mummies on which Time has written +His scorn of the embalmer; the seventh, from the deck +An oak-splinter pierced through his breast and his back, +And hung out to the tempest, a wreck on the wreck. _65 +No more? At the helm sits a woman more fair +Than Heaven, when, unbinding its star-braided hair, +It sinks with the sun on the earth and the sea. +She clasps a bright child on her upgathered knee; +It laughs at the lightning, it mocks the mixed thunder _70 +Of the air and the sea, with desire and with wonder +It is beckoning the tigers to rise and come near, +It would play with those eyes where the radiance of fear +Is outshining the meteors; its bosom beats high, +The heart-fire of pleasure has kindled its eye, _75 +While its mother's is lustreless. 'Smile not, my child, +But sleep deeply and sweetly, and so be beguiled +Of the pang that awaits us, whatever that be, +So dreadful since thou must divide it with me! +Dream, sleep! This pale bosom, thy cradle and bed, _80 +Will it rock thee not, infant? 'Tis beating with dread! +Alas! what is life, what is death, what are we, +That when the ship sinks we no longer may be? +What! to see thee no more, and to feel thee no more? +To be after life what we have been before? _85 +Not to touch those sweet hands? Not to look on those eyes, +Those lips, and that hair,--all the smiling disguise +Thou yet wearest, sweet Spirit, which I, day by day, +Have so long called my child, but which now fades away +Like a rainbow, and I the fallen shower?'--Lo! the ship _90 +Is settling, it topples, the leeward ports dip; +The tigers leap up when they feel the slow brine +Crawling inch by inch on them; hair, ears, limbs, and eyne, +Stand rigid with horror; a loud, long, hoarse cry +Bursts at once from their vitals tremendously, _95 +And 'tis borne down the mountainous vale of the wave, +Rebounding, like thunder, from crag to cave, +Mixed with the clash of the lashing rain, +Hurried on by the might of the hurricane: +The hurricane came from the west, and passed on _100 +By the path of the gate of the eastern sun, +Transversely dividing the stream of the storm; +As an arrowy serpent, pursuing the form +Of an elephant, bursts through the brakes of the waste. +Black as a cormorant the screaming blast, _105 +Between Ocean and Heaven, like an ocean, passed, +Till it came to the clouds on the verge of the world +Which, based on the sea and to Heaven upcurled, +Like columns and walls did surround and sustain +The dome of the tempest; it rent them in twain, _110 +As a flood rends its barriers of mountainous crag: +And the dense clouds in many a ruin and rag, +Like the stones of a temple ere earthquake has passed, +Like the dust of its fall. on the whirlwind are cast; +They are scattered like foam on the torrent; and where _115 +The wind has burst out through the chasm, from the air +Of clear morning the beams of the sunrise flow in, +Unimpeded, keen, golden, and crystalline, +Banded armies of light and of air; at one gate +They encounter, but interpenetrate. _120 +And that breach in the tempest is widening away, +And the caverns of cloud are torn up by the day, +And the fierce winds are sinking with weary wings, +Lulled by the motion and murmurings +And the long glassy heave of the rocking sea, _125 +And overhead glorious, but dreadful to see, +The wrecks of the tempest, like vapours of gold, +Are consuming in sunrise. The heaped waves behold +The deep calm of blue Heaven dilating above, +And, like passions made still by the presence of Love, _130 +Beneath the clear surface reflecting it slide +Tremulous with soft influence; extending its tide +From the Andes to Atlas, round mountain and isle, +Round sea-birds and wrecks, paved with Heaven's azure smile, +The wide world of waters is vibrating. Where _135 +Is the ship? On the verge of the wave where it lay +One tiger is mingled in ghastly affray +With a sea-snake. The foam and the smoke of the battle +Stain the clear air with sunbows; the jar, and the rattle +Of solid bones crushed by the infinite stress _140 +Of the snake's adamantine voluminousness; +And the hum of the hot blood that spouts and rains +Where the gripe of the tiger has wounded the veins +Swollen with rage, strength, and effort; the whirl and the splash +As of some hideous engine whose brazen teeth smash _145 +The thin winds and soft waves into thunder; the screams +And hissings crawl fast o'er the smooth ocean-streams, +Each sound like a centipede. Near this commotion, +A blue shark is hanging within the blue ocean, +The fin-winged tomb of the victor. The other _150 +Is winning his way from the fate of his brother +To his own with the speed of despair. Lo! a boat +Advances; twelve rowers with the impulse of thought +Urge on the keen keel,--the brine foams. At the stern +Three marksmen stand levelling. Hot bullets burn _155 +In the breast of the tiger, which yet bears him on +To his refuge and ruin. One fragment alone,-- +'Tis dwindling and sinking, 'tis now almost gone,-- +Of the wreck of the vessel peers out of the sea. +With her left hand she grasps it impetuously. _160 +With her right she sustains her fair infant. Death, Fear, +Love, Beauty, are mixed in the atmosphere, +Which trembles and burns with the fervour of dread +Around her wild eyes, her bright hand, and her head, +Like a meteor of light o'er the waters! her child _165 +Is yet smiling, and playing, and murmuring; so smiled +The false deep ere the storm. Like a sister and brother +The child and the ocean still smile on each other, +Whilst-- + +NOTES: +_6 ruining Harvard manuscript, 1839; raining 1820. +_8 sunk Harvard manuscript, 1839; sank 1820. +_35 by Harvard manuscript; from 1820, 1839. +_61 has 1820; had 1839. +_87 all the Harvard manuscript; all that 1820, 1839. +_116 through Harvard manuscript; from 1820, 1839. +_121 away]alway cj. A.C. Bradley. +_122 cloud Harvard manuscript, 1839; clouds 1820. +_160 impetuously 1820, 1839; convulsively Harvard manuscript. + +*** + + +THE CLOUD. + +[Published with "Prometheus Unbound", 1820.] + +I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers, +From the seas and the streams; +I bear light shade for the leaves when laid +In their noonday dreams. +From my wings are shaken the dews that waken _5 +The sweet buds every one, +When rocked to rest on their mother's breast, +As she dances about the sun. +I wield the flail of the lashing hail, +And whiten the green plains under, _10 +And then again I dissolve it in rain, +And laugh as I pass in thunder. + +I sift the snow on the mountains below, +And their great pines groan aghast; +And all the night 'tis my pillow white, _15 +While I sleep in the arms of the blast. +Sublime on the towers of my skiey bowers, +Lightning my pilot sits; +In a cavern under is fettered the thunder, +It struggles and howls at fits; _20 +Over earth and ocean, with gentle motion, +This pilot is guiding me, +Lured by the love of the genii that move +In the depths of the purple sea; +Over the rills, and the crags, and the hills. _25 +Over the lakes and the plains, +Wherever he dream, under mountain or stream, +The Spirit he loves remains; +And I all the while bask in Heaven's blue smile, +Whilst he is dissolving in rains. _30 + +The sanguine Sunrise, with his meteor eyes, +And his burning plumes outspread, +Leaps on the back of my sailing rack, +When the morning star shines dead; +As on the jag of a mountain crag, _35 +Which an earthquake rocks and swings, +An eagle alit one moment may sit +In the light of its golden wings. +And when Sunset may breathe, from the lit sea beneath, +Its ardours of rest and of love, _40 +And the crimson pall of eve may fall +From the depth of Heaven above. +With wings folded I rest, on mine aery nest, +As still as a brooding dove. + +That orbed maiden with white fire laden, _45 +Whom mortals call the Moon, +Glides glimmering o'er my fleece-like floor, +By the midnight breezes strewn; +And wherever the beat of her unseen feet, +Which only the angels hear, _50 +May have broken the woof of my tent's thin roof. +The stars peep behind her and peer; +And I laugh to see them whirl and flee, +Like a swarm of golden bees. +When I widen the rent in my wind-built tent, _55 +Till the calm rivers, lakes, and seas, +Like strips of the sky fallen through me on high, +Are each paved with the moon and these. + +I bind the Sun's throne with a burning zone, +And the Moon's with a girdle of pearl; _60 +The volcanoes are dim, and the stars reel and swim, +When the whirlwinds my banner unfurl. +From cape to cape, with a bridge-like shape, +Over a torrent sea, +Sunbeam-proof, I hand like a roof,-- _65 +The mountains its columns be. +The triumphal arch through which I march +With hurricane, fire, and snow, +When the Powers of the air are chained to my chair, +Is the million-coloured bow; _70 +The sphere-fire above its soft colours wove, +While the moist Earth was laughing below. + +I am the daughter of Earth and Water, +And the nursling of the Sky; +I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores; _75 +I change, but I cannot die. +For after the rain when with never a stain +The pavilion of Heaven is bare, +And the winds and sunbeams with their convex gleams +Build up the blue dome of air, _80 +I silently laugh at my own cenotaph, +And out of the caverns of rain, +Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb, +I arise and unbuild it again. + +NOTES: +_3 shade 1820; shades 1839. +_6 buds 1839; birds 1820. +_59 with a 1820; with the 1830. + +*** + + +TO A SKYLARK. + +[Composed at Leghorn, 1820, and published with "Prometheus Unbound" in +the same year. There is a transcript in the Harvard manuscript.] + +Hail to thee, blithe Spirit! +Bird thou never wert, +That from Heaven, or near it, +Pourest thy full heart +In profuse strains of unpremeditated art. _5 + +Higher still and higher +From the earth thou springest +Like a cloud of fire; +The blue deep thou wingest, +And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest. _10 + +In the golden lightning +Of the sunken sun, +O'er which clouds are bright'ning. +Thou dost float and run; +Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun. _15 + +The pale purple even +Melts around thy flight; +Like a star of Heaven, +In the broad daylight +Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight, _20 + +Keen as are the arrows +Of that silver sphere, +Whose intense lamp narrows +In the white dawn clear +Until we hardly see--we feel that it is there. _25 + +All the earth and air +With thy voice is loud, +As, when night is bare, +From one lonely cloud +The moon rains out her beams, and Heaven is overflowed. _30 + +What thou art we know not; +What is most like thee? +From rainbow clouds there flow not +Drops so bright to see +As from thy presence showers a rain of melody. _35 + +Like a Poet hidden +In the light of thought, +Singing hymns unbidden, +Till the world is wrought +To sympathy with hopes and fears it heeded not: _40 + +Like a high-born maiden +In a palace-tower, +Soothing her love-laden +Soul in secret hour +With music sweet as love, which overflows her bower: _45 + +Like a glow-worm golden +In a dell of dew, +Scattering unbeholden +Its aereal hue +Among the flowers and grass, which screen it from the view! _50 + +Like a rose embowered +In its own green leaves, +By warm winds deflowered, +Till the scent it gives +Makes faint with too much sweet those heavy-winged thieves: _55 + +Sound of vernal showers +On the twinkling grass, +Rain-awakened flowers, +All that ever was +Joyous, and clear, and fresh, thy music doth surpass: _60 + +Teach us, Sprite or Bird, +What sweet thoughts are thine: +I have never heard +Praise of love or wine +That panted forth a flood of rapture so divine. _65 + +Chorus Hymeneal, +Or triumphal chant, +Matched with thine would be all +But an empty vaunt, +A thing wherein we feel there is some hidden want. _70 + +What objects are the fountains +Of thy happy strain? +What fields, or waves, or mountains? +What shapes of sky or plain? +What love of thine own kind? what ignorance of pain? _75 + +With thy clear keen joyance +Languor cannot be: +Shadow of annoyance +Never came near thee: +Thou lovest--but ne'er knew love's sad satiety. _80 + +Waking or asleep, +Thou of death must deem +Things more true and deep +Than we mortals dream, +Or how could thy notes flow in such a crystal stream? _85 + +We look before and after, +And pine for what is not: +Our sincerest laughter +With some pain is fraught; +Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought. _90 + +Yet if we could scorn +Hate, and pride, and fear; +If we were things born +Not to shed a tear, +I know not how thy joy we ever should come near. _95 + +Better than all measures +Of delightful sound, +Better than all treasures +That in books are found, +Thy skill to poet were, thou scorner of the ground! _100 + +Teach me half the gladness +That thy brain must know, +Such harmonious madness +From my lips would flow +The world should listen then--as I am listening now. _105 + +NOTE: +_55 those Harvard manuscript: these 1820, 1839. + + +*** + + +ODE TO LIBERTY. + +[Composed early in 1820, and published, with "Prometheus Unbound", in +the same year. A transcript in Shelley's hand of lines 1-21 is included +in the Harvard manuscript book, and amongst the Boscombe manuscripts +there is a fragment of a rough draft (Garnett). For further particulars +concerning the text see Editor's Notes.] + +Yet, Freedom, yet, thy banner, torn but flying, +Streams like a thunder-storm against the wind.--BYRON. + +1. +A glorious people vibrated again +The lightning of the nations: Liberty +From heart to heart, from tower to tower, o'er Spain, +Scattering contagious fire into the sky, +Gleamed. My soul spurned the chains of its dismay, _5 +And in the rapid plumes of song +Clothed itself, sublime and strong; +As a young eagle soars the morning clouds among, +Hovering inverse o'er its accustomed prey; +Till from its station in the Heaven of fame _10 +The Spirit's whirlwind rapped it, and the ray +Of the remotest sphere of living flame +Which paves the void was from behind it flung, +As foam from a ship's swiftness, when there came +A voice out of the deep: I will record the same. _15 + +2. +The Sun and the serenest Moon sprang forth: +The burning stars of the abyss were hurled +Into the depths of Heaven. The daedal earth, +That island in the ocean of the world, +Hung in its cloud of all-sustaining air: _20 +But this divinest universe +Was yet a chaos and a curse, +For thou wert not: but, power from worst producing worse, +The spirit of the beasts was kindled there, +And of the birds, and of the watery forms, _25 +And there was war among them, and despair +Within them, raging without truce or terms: +The bosom of their violated nurse +Groaned, for beasts warred on beasts, and worms on worms, +And men on men; each heart was as a hell of storms. _30 + +3. +Man, the imperial shape, then multiplied +His generations under the pavilion +Of the Sun's throne: palace and pyramid, +Temple and prison, to many a swarming million +Were, as to mountain-wolves their ragged caves. _35 +This human living multitude +Was savage, cunning, blind, and rude, +For thou wert not; but o'er the populous solitude, +Like one fierce cloud over a waste of waves, +Hung Tyranny; beneath, sate deified _40 +The sister-pest, congregator of slaves; +Into the shadow of her pinions wide +Anarchs and priests, who feed on gold and blood +Till with the stain their inmost souls are dyed, +Drove the astonished herds of men from every side. _45 + +4. +The nodding promontories, and blue isles, +And cloud-like mountains, and dividuous waves +Of Greece, basked glorious in the open smiles +Of favouring Heaven: from their enchanted caves +Prophetic echoes flung dim melody. _50 +On the unapprehensive wild +The vine, the corn, the olive mild, +Grew savage yet, to human use unreconciled; +And, like unfolded flowers beneath the sea, +Like the man's thought dark in the infant's brain, _55 +Like aught that is which wraps what is to be, +Art's deathless dreams lay veiled by many a vein +Of Parian stone; and, yet a speechless child, +Verse murmured, and Philosophy did strain +Her lidless eyes for thee; when o'er the Aegean main _60 + +5. +Athens arose: a city such as vision +Builds from the purple crags and silver towers +Of battlemented cloud, as in derision +Of kingliest masonry: the ocean-floors +Pave it; the evening sky pavilions it; _65 +Its portals are inhabited +By thunder-zoned winds, each head +Within its cloudy wings with sun-fire garlanded,-- +A divine work! Athens, diviner yet, +Gleamed with its crest of columns, on the will _70 +Of man, as on a mount of diamond, set; +For thou wert, and thine all-creative skill +Peopled, with forms that mock the eternal dead +In marble immortality, that hill +Which was thine earliest throne and latest oracle. _75 + +6. +Within the surface of Time's fleeting river +Its wrinkled image lies, as then it lay +Immovably unquiet, and for ever +It trembles, but it cannot pass away! +The voices of thy bards and sages thunder _80 +With an earth-awakening blast +Through the caverns of the past: +(Religion veils her eyes; Oppression shrinks aghast:) +A winged sound of joy, and love, and wonder, +Which soars where Expectation never flew, _85 +Rending the veil of space and time asunder! +One ocean feeds the clouds, and streams, and dew; +One Sun illumines Heaven; one Spirit vast +With life and love makes chaos ever new, +As Athens doth the world with thy delight renew. _90 + +7. +Then Rome was, and from thy deep bosom fairest, +Like a wolf-cub from a Cadmaean Maenad, +She drew the milk of greatness, though thy dearest +From that Elysian food was yet unweaned; +And many a deed of terrible uprightness _95 +By thy sweet love was sanctified; +And in thy smile, and by thy side, +Saintly Camillus lived, and firm Atilius died. +But when tears stained thy robe of vestal-whiteness, +And gold profaned thy Capitolian throne, _100 +Thou didst desert, with spirit-winged lightness, +The senate of the tyrants: they sunk prone +Slaves of one tyrant: Palatinus sighed +Faint echoes of Ionian song; that tone +Thou didst delay to hear, lamenting to disown _105 + +8. +From what Hyrcanian glen or frozen hill, +Or piny promontory of the Arctic main, +Or utmost islet inaccessible, +Didst thou lament the ruin of thy reign, +Teaching the woods and waves, and desert rocks, _110 +And every Naiad's ice-cold urn, +To talk in echoes sad and stern +Of that sublimest lore which man had dared unlearn? +For neither didst thou watch the wizard flocks +Of the Scald's dreams, nor haunt the Druid's sleep. _115 +What if the tears rained through thy shattered locks +Were quickly dried? for thou didst groan, not weep, +When from its sea of death, to kill and burn, +The Galilean serpent forth did creep, +And made thy world an undistinguishable heap. _120 + +9. +A thousand years the Earth cried, 'Where art thou?' +And then the shadow of thy coming fell +On Saxon Alfred's olive-cinctured brow: +And many a warrior-peopled citadel. +Like rocks which fire lifts out of the flat deep, _125 +Arose in sacred Italy, +Frowning o'er the tempestuous sea +Of kings, and priests, and slaves, in tower-crowned majesty; +That multitudinous anarchy did sweep +And burst around their walls, like idle foam, _130 +Whilst from the human spirit's deepest deep +Strange melody with love and awe struck dumb +Dissonant arms; and Art, which cannot die, +With divine wand traced on our earthly home +Fit imagery to pave Heaven's everlasting dome. _135 + +10. +Thou huntress swifter than the Moon! thou terror +Of the world's wolves! thou bearer of the quiver, +Whose sunlike shafts pierce tempest-winged Error, +As light may pierce the clouds when they dissever +In the calm regions of the orient day! _140 +Luther caught thy wakening glance; +Like lightning, from his leaden lance +Reflected, it dissolved the visions of the trance +In which, as in a tomb, the nations lay; +And England's prophets hailed thee as their queen, _145 +In songs whose music cannot pass away, +Though it must flow forever: not unseen +Before the spirit-sighted countenance +Of Milton didst thou pass, from the sad scene +Beyond whose night he saw, with a dejected mien. _150 + +11. +The eager hours and unreluctant years +As on a dawn-illumined mountain stood. +Trampling to silence their loud hopes and fears, +Darkening each other with their multitude, +And cried aloud, 'Liberty!' Indignation _155 +Answered Pity from her cave; +Death grew pale within the grave, +And Desolation howled to the destroyer, Save! +When like Heaven's Sun girt by the exhalation +Of its own glorious light, thou didst arise. _160 +Chasing thy foes from nation unto nation +Like shadows: as if day had cloven the skies +At dreaming midnight o'er the western wave, +Men started, staggering with a glad surprise, +Under the lightnings of thine unfamiliar eyes. _165 + +12. +Thou Heaven of earth! what spells could pall thee then +In ominous eclipse? a thousand years +Bred from the slime of deep Oppression's den. +Dyed all thy liquid light with blood and tears. +Till thy sweet stars could weep the stain away; _170 +How like Bacchanals of blood +Round France, the ghastly vintage, stood +Destruction's sceptred slaves, and Folly's mitred brood! +When one, like them, but mightier far than they, +The Anarch of thine own bewildered powers, _175 +Rose: armies mingled in obscure array, +Like clouds with clouds, darkening the sacred bowers +Of serene Heaven. He, by the past pursued, +Rests with those dead, but unforgotten hours, +Whose ghosts scare victor kings in their ancestral towers. _180 + +13. +England yet sleeps: was she not called of old? +Spain calls her now, as with its thrilling thunder +Vesuvius wakens Aetna, and the cold +Snow-crags by its reply are cloven in sunder: +O'er the lit waves every Aeolian isle _185 +From Pithecusa to Pelorus +Howls, and leaps, and glares in chorus: +They cry, 'Be dim; ye lamps of Heaven suspended o'er us!' +Her chains are threads of gold, she need but smile +And they dissolve; but Spain's were links of steel, _190 +Till bit to dust by virtue's keenest file. +Twins of a single destiny! appeal +To the eternal years enthroned before us +In the dim West; impress us from a seal, +All ye have thought and done! Time cannot dare conceal. _195 + +14. +Tomb of Arminius! render up thy dead +Till, like a standard from a watch-tower's staff, +His soul may stream over the tyrant's head; +Thy victory shall be his epitaph, +Wild Bacchanal of truth's mysterious wine, _200 +King-deluded Germany, +His dead spirit lives in thee. +Why do we fear or hope? thou art already free! +And thou, lost Paradise of this divine +And glorious world! thou flowery wilderness! _205 +Thou island of eternity! thou shrine +Where Desolation, clothed with loveliness, +Worships the thing thou wert! O Italy, +Gather thy blood into thy heart; repress +The beasts who make their dens thy sacred palaces. _210 + +15. +Oh, that the free would stamp the impious name +Of KING into the dust! or write it there, +So that this blot upon the page of fame +Were as a serpent's path, which the light air +Erases, and the flat sands close behind! _215 +Ye the oracle have heard: +Lift the victory-flashing sword. +And cut the snaky knots of this foul gordian word, +Which, weak itself as stubble, yet can bind +Into a mass, irrefragably firm, _220 +The axes and the rods which awe mankind; +The sound has poison in it, 'tis the sperm +Of what makes life foul, cankerous, and abhorred; +Disdain not thou, at thine appointed term, +To set thine armed heel on this reluctant worm. _225 + +16. +Oh, that the wise from their bright minds would kindle +Such lamps within the dome of this dim world, +That the pale name of PRIEST might shrink and dwindle +Into the hell from which it first was hurled, +A scoff of impious pride from fiends impure; _230 +Till human thoughts might kneel alone, +Each before the judgement-throne +Of its own aweless soul, or of the Power unknown! +Oh, that the words which make the thoughts obscure +From which they spring, as clouds of glimmering dew _235 +From a white lake blot Heaven's blue portraiture, +Were stripped of their thin masks and various hue +And frowns and smiles and splendours not their own, +Till in the nakedness of false and true +They stand before their Lord, each to receive its due! _240 + +17. +He who taught man to vanquish whatsoever +Can be between the cradle and the grave +Crowned him the King of Life. Oh, vain endeavour! +If on his own high will, a willing slave, +He has enthroned the oppression and the oppressor _245 +What if earth can clothe and feed +Amplest millions at their need, +And power in thought be as the tree within the seed? +Or what if Art, an ardent intercessor, +Driving on fiery wings to Nature's throne, _250 +Checks the great mother stooping to caress her, +And cries: 'Give me, thy child, dominion +Over all height and depth'? if Life can breed +New wants, and wealth from those who toil and groan, +Rend of thy gifts and hers a thousandfold for one! _255 + +18. +Come thou, but lead out of the inmost cave +Of man's deep spirit, as the morning-star +Beckons the Sun from the Eoan wave, +Wisdom. I hear the pennons of her car +Self-moving, like cloud charioted by flame; _260 +Comes she not, and come ye not, +Rulers of eternal thought, +To judge, with solemn truth, life's ill-apportioned lot? +Blind Love, and equal Justice, and the Fame +Of what has been, the Hope of what will be? _265 +O Liberty! if such could be thy name +Wert thou disjoined from these, or they from thee: +If thine or theirs were treasures to be bought +By blood or tears, have not the wise and free +Wept tears, and blood like tears?--The solemn harmony _270 + +19. +Paused, and the Spirit of that mighty singing +To its abyss was suddenly withdrawn; +Then, as a wild swan, when sublimely winging +Its path athwart the thunder-smoke of dawn, +Sinks headlong through the aereal golden light _275 +On the heavy-sounding plain, +When the bolt has pierced its brain; +As summer clouds dissolve, unburthened of their rain; +As a far taper fades with fading night, +As a brief insect dies with dying day,-- _280 +My song, its pinions disarrayed of might, +Drooped; o'er it closed the echoes far away +Of the great voice which did its flight sustain, +As waves which lately paved his watery way +Hiss round a drowner's head in their tempestuous play. _285 + +NOTES: +_4 into]unto Harvard manuscript. +_9 inverse cj. Rossetti; in verse 1820. +_92 See the Bacchae of Euripides--[SHELLEY'S NOTE]. +_113 lore 1839; love 1820. +_116 shattered]scattered cj. Rossetti. +_134 wand 1820; want 1830. +_194 us]as cj. Forman. +_212 KING Boscombe manuscript; **** 1820, 1839; CHRIST cj. Swinburne. +_249 Or 1839; O, 1820. +_250 Driving 1820; Diving 1839. + +*** + + +CANCELLED PASSAGE OF THE ODE TO LIBERTY. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +Within a cavern of man's trackless spirit +Is throned an Image, so intensely fair +That the adventurous thoughts that wander near it +Worship, and as they kneel, tremble and wear +The splendour of its presence, and the light _5 +Penetrates their dreamlike frame +Till they become charged with the strength of flame. + +*** + + +TO --. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +1. +I fear thy kisses, gentle maiden, +Thou needest not fear mine; +My spirit is too deeply laden +Ever to burthen thine. + +2. +I fear thy mien, thy tones, thy motion, _5 +Thou needest not fear mine; +Innocent is the heart's devotion +With which I worship thine. + +*** + + +ARETHUSA. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824, and dated by her +'Pisa, 1820.' There is a fair draft amongst the Shelley manuscripts at +the Bodleian Library. See Mr. C.D. Locock's "Examination", etc., 1903, +page 24.] + +1. +Arethusa arose +From her couch of snows +In the Acroceraunian mountains,-- +From cloud and from crag, +With many a jag, _5 +Shepherding her bright fountains. +She leapt down the rocks, +With her rainbow locks +Streaming among the streams;-- +Her steps paved with green _10 +The downward ravine +Which slopes to the western gleams; +And gliding and springing +She went, ever singing, +In murmurs as soft as sleep; _15 +The Earth seemed to love her, +And Heaven smiled above her, +As she lingered towards the deep. + +2. +Then Alpheus bold, +On his glacier cold, _20 +With his trident the mountains strook; +And opened a chasm +In the rocks--with the spasm +All Erymanthus shook. +And the black south wind _25 +It unsealed behind +The urns of the silent snow, +And earthquake and thunder +Did rend in sunder +The bars of the springs below. _30 +And the beard and the hair +Of the River-god were +Seen through the torrent's sweep, +As he followed the light +Of the fleet nymph's flight _35 +To the brink of the Dorian deep. + +3. +'Oh, save me! Oh, guide me! +And bid the deep hide me, +For he grasps me now by the hair!' +The loud Ocean heard, _40 +To its blue depth stirred, +And divided at her prayer; +And under the water +The Earth's white daughter +Fled like a sunny beam; _45 +Behind her descended +Her billows, unblended +With the brackish Dorian stream:-- +Like a gloomy stain +On the emerald main _50 +Alpheus rushed behind,-- +As an eagle pursuing +A dove to its ruin +Down the streams of the cloudy wind. + +4. +Under the bowers _55 +Where the Ocean Powers +Sit on their pearled thrones; +Through the coral woods +Of the weltering floods, +Over heaps of unvalued stones; _60 +Through the dim beams +Which amid the streams +Weave a network of coloured light; +And under the caves, +Where the shadowy waves _65 +Are as green as the forest's night:-- +Outspeeding the shark, +And the sword-fish dark, +Under the Ocean's foam, +And up through the rifts _70 +Of the mountain clifts +They passed to their Dorian home. + +5. +And now from their fountains +In Enna's mountains, +Down one vale where the morning basks, _75 +Like friends once parted +Grown single-hearted, +They ply their watery tasks. +At sunrise they leap +From their cradles steep _80 +In the cave of the shelving hill; +At noontide they flow +Through the woods below +And the meadows of asphodel; +And at night they sleep _85 +In the rocking deep +Beneath the Ortygian shore;-- +Like spirits that lie +In the azure sky +When they love but live no more. _90 + +NOTES: +_6 unsealed B.; concealed 1824. +_31 And the B.; The 1824. +_69 Ocean's B.; ocean 1824. + +*** + + +SONG OF PROSERPINE WHILE GATHERING FLOWERS ON THE PLAIN OF ENNA. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition. There +is a fair draft amongst the Shelley manuscripts at the Bodleian +Library. See Mr. C.D. Locock's "Examination," etc., 1903, page 24.] + +1. +Sacred Goddess, Mother Earth, +Thou from whose immortal bosom +Gods, and men, and beasts have birth, +Leaf and blade, and bud and blossom, +Breathe thine influence most divine _5 +On thine own child, Proserpine. + +2. +If with mists of evening dew +Thou dost nourish these young flowers +Till they grow, in scent and hue, +Fairest children of the Hours, _10 +Breathe thine influence most divine +On thine own child, Proserpine. + +*** + + +HYMN OF APOLLO. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824. There is a fair +draft amongst the Shelley manuscripts at the Bodleian. See Mr. C.D. +Locock's "Examination", etc., 1903, page 25.] + +1. +The sleepless Hours who watch me as I lie, +Curtained with star-inwoven tapestries +From the broad moonlight of the sky, +Fanning the busy dreams from my dim eyes,-- +Waken me when their Mother, the gray Dawn, _5 +Tells them that dreams and that the moon is gone. + +2. +Then I arise, and climbing Heaven's blue dome, +I walk over the mountains and the waves, +Leaving my robe upon the ocean foam; +My footsteps pave the clouds with fire; the caves _10 +Are filled with my bright presence, and the air +Leaves the green Earth to my embraces bare. + +3. +The sunbeams are my shafts, with which I kill +Deceit, that loves the night and fears the day; +All men who do or even imagine ill _15 +Fly me, and from the glory of my ray +Good minds and open actions take new might, +Until diminished by the reign of Night. + +4. +I feed the clouds, the rainbows and the flowers +With their aethereal colours; the moon's globe _20 +And the pure stars in their eternal bowers +Are cinctured with my power as with a robe; +Whatever lamps on Earth or Heaven may shine +Are portions of one power, which is mine. + +5. +I stand at noon upon the peak of Heaven, _25 +Then with unwilling steps I wander down +Into the clouds of the Atlantic even; +For grief that I depart they weep and frown: +What look is more delightful than the smile +With which I soothe them from the western isle? _30 + +6. +I am the eye with which the Universe +Beholds itself and knows itself divine; +All harmony of instrument or verse, +All prophecy, all medicine is mine, +All light of art or nature;--to my song _35 +Victory and praise in its own right belong. + +NOTES: +_32 itself divine]it is divine B. +_34 is B.; are 1824. +_36 its cj. Rossetti, 1870, B.; their 1824. + +*** + + +HYMN OF PAN. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824. There is a fair +draft amongst the Shelley manuscripts at the Bodleian. See Mr. C.D. +Locock's "Examination", etc., 1903, page 25.] + +1. +From the forests and highlands +We come, we come; +From the river-girt islands, +Where loud waves are dumb +Listening to my sweet pipings. _5 +The wind in the reeds and the rushes, +The bees on the bells of thyme, +The birds on the myrtle bushes, +The cicale above in the lime, +And the lizards below in the grass, _10 +Were as silent as ever old Tmolus was, +Listening to my sweet pipings. + +2. +Liquid Peneus was flowing, +And all dark Tempe lay +In Pelion's shadow, outgrowing _15 +The light of the dying day, +Speeded by my sweet pipings. +The Sileni, and Sylvans, and Fauns, +And the Nymphs of the woods and the waves, +To the edge of the moist river-lawns, _20 +And the brink of the dewy caves, +And all that did then attend and follow, +Were silent with love, as you now, Apollo, +With envy of my sweet pipings. + +3. +I sang of the dancing stars, _25 +I sang of the daedal Earth, +And of Heaven--and the giant wars, +And Love, and Death, and Birth,-- +And then I changed my pipings,-- +Singing how down the vale of Maenalus _30 +I pursued a maiden and clasped a reed. +Gods and men, we are all deluded thus! +It breaks in our bosom and then we bleed: +All wept, as I think both ye now would, +If envy or age had not frozen your blood, _35 +At the sorrow of my sweet pipings. + +NOTE: +_5, _12 Listening to]Listening B. + +*** + + +THE QUESTION. + +[Published by Leigh Hunt (with the signature Sigma) in "The Literary +Pocket-Book", 1822. Reprinted by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", +1824. Copies exist in the Harvard manuscript book, amongst the Boscombe +manuscripts, and amongst Ollier manuscripts.] + +1. +I dreamed that, as I wandered by the way, +Bare Winter suddenly was changed to Spring, +And gentle odours led my steps astray, +Mixed with a sound of waters murmuring +Along a shelving bank of turf, which lay _5 +Under a copse, and hardly dared to fling +Its green arms round the bosom of the stream, +But kissed it and then fled, as thou mightest in dream. + +2. +There grew pied wind-flowers and violets, +Daisies, those pearled Arcturi of the earth, _10 +The constellated flower that never sets; +Faint oxslips; tender bluebells, at whose birth +The sod scarce heaved; and that tall flower that wets-- +Like a child, half in tenderness and mirth-- +Its mother's face with Heaven's collected tears, _15 +When the low wind, its playmate's voice, it hears. + +3. +And in the warm hedge grew lush eglantine, +Green cowbind and the moonlight-coloured may, +And cherry-blossoms, and white cups, whose wine +Was the bright dew, yet drained not by the day; _20 +And wild roses, and ivy serpentine, +With its dark buds and leaves, wandering astray; +And flowers azure, black, and streaked with gold, +Fairer than any wakened eyes behold. + +4. +And nearer to the river's trembling edge _25 +There grew broad flag-flowers, purple pranked with white. +And starry river buds among the sedge, +And floating water-lilies, broad and bright, +Which lit the oak that overhung the hedge +With moonlight beams of their own watery light; _30 +And bulrushes, and reeds of such deep green +As soothed the dazzled eye with sober sheen. + +5. +Methought that of these visionary flowers +I made a nosegay, bound in such a way +That the same hues, which in their natural bowers _35 +Were mingled or opposed, the like array +Kept these imprisoned children of the Hours +Within my hand,--and then, elate and gay, +I hastened to the spot whence I had come, +That I might there present it!--Oh! to whom? _40 + +NOTES: +_14 Like...mirth Harvard manuscript, Boscombe manuscript; + wanting in Ollier manuscript, 1822, 1824, 1839. +_15 Heaven's collected Harvard manuscript, Ollier manuscript, 1822; + Heaven-collected 1824, 1839. + +*** + + +THE TWO SPIRITS: AN ALLEGORY. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +FIRST SPIRIT: +O thou, who plumed with strong desire +Wouldst float above the earth, beware! +A Shadow tracks thy flight of fire-- +Night is coming! +Bright are the regions of the air, _5 +And among the winds and beams +It were delight to wander there-- +Night is coming! + +SECOND SPIRIT: +The deathless stars are bright above; +If I would cross the shade of night, _10 +Within my heart is the lamp of love, +And that is day! +And the moon will smile with gentle light +On my golden plumes where'er they move; +The meteors will linger round my flight, _15 +And make night day. + +FIRST SPIRIT: +But if the whirlwinds of darkness waken +Hail, and lightning, and stormy rain; +See, the bounds of the air are shaken-- +Night is coming! _20 +The red swift clouds of the hurricane +Yon declining sun have overtaken, +The clash of the hail sweeps over the plain-- +Night is coming! + +SECOND SPIRIT: +I see the light, and I hear the sound; _25 +I'll sail on the flood of the tempest dark +With the calm within and the light around +Which makes night day: +And thou, when the gloom is deep and stark, +Look from thy dull earth, slumber-bound, _30 +My moon-like flight thou then mayst mark +On high, far away. + +... + +Some say there is a precipice +Where one vast pine is frozen to ruin +O'er piles of snow and chasms of ice _35 +Mid Alpine mountains; +And that the languid storm pursuing +That winged shape, for ever flies +Round those hoar branches, aye renewing +Its aery fountains. _40 + +Some say when nights are dry and clear, +And the death-dews sleep on the morass, +Sweet whispers are heard by the traveller, +Which make night day: +And a silver shape like his early love doth pass _45 +Upborne by her wild and glittering hair, +And when he awakes on the fragrant grass, +He finds night day. + +NOTES: +_2 Wouldst 1839; Would 1824. +_31 moon-like 1824; moonlight 1839. +_44 make]makes 1824, 1839. + +*** + + +ODE TO NAPLES. + +(The Author has connected many recollections of his visit to Pompeii +and Baiae with the enthusiasm excited by the intelligence of the +proclamation of a Constitutional Government at Naples. This has given a +tinge of picturesque and descriptive imagery to the introductory Epodes +which depicture these scenes, and some of the majestic feelings +permanently connected with the scene of this animating +event.--[SHELLEY'S NOTE.]) + +[Composed at San Juliano di Pisa, August 17-25, 1820; published in +"Posthumous Poems", 1824. There is a copy, 'for the most part neat and +legible,' amongst the Shelley manuscripts at the Bodleian Library. See +Mr. C.D. Locock's "Examination", etc., 1903, pages 14-18.] + +EPODE 1a. + +I stood within the City disinterred; +And heard the autumnal leaves like light footfalls +Of spirits passing through the streets; and heard +The Mountain's slumberous voice at intervals +Thrill through those roofless halls; _5 +The oracular thunder penetrating shook +The listening soul in my suspended blood; +I felt that Earth out of her deep heart spoke-- +I felt, but heard not:--through white columns glowed +The isle-sustaining ocean-flood, _10 +A plane of light between two heavens of azure! +Around me gleamed many a bright sepulchre +Of whose pure beauty, Time, as if his pleasure +Were to spare Death, had never made erasure; +But every living lineament was clear _15 +As in the sculptor's thought; and there +The wreaths of stony myrtle, ivy, and pine, +Like winter leaves o'ergrown by moulded snow, +Seemed only not to move and grow +Because the crystal silence of the air _20 +Weighed on their life; even as the Power divine +Which then lulled all things, brooded upon mine. + +NOTE: +_1 Pompeii.--[SHELLEY'S NOTE.] + +EPODE 2a. + +Then gentle winds arose +With many a mingled close +Of wild Aeolian sound, and mountain-odours keen; _25 +And where the Baian ocean +Welters with airlike motion, +Within, above, around its bowers of starry green, +Moving the sea-flowers in those purple caves, +Even as the ever stormless atmosphere _30 +Floats o'er the Elysian realm, +It bore me, like an Angel, o'er the waves +Of sunlight, whose swift pinnace of dewy air +No storm can overwhelm. +I sailed, where ever flows _35 +Under the calm Serene +A spirit of deep emotion +From the unknown graves +Of the dead Kings of Melody. +Shadowy Aornos darkened o'er the helm _40 +The horizontal aether; Heaven stripped bare +Its depth over Elysium, where the prow +Made the invisible water white as snow; +From that Typhaean mount, Inarime, +There streamed a sunbright vapour, like the standard _45 +Of some aethereal host; +Whilst from all the coast, +Louder and louder, gathering round, there wandered +Over the oracular woods and divine sea +Prophesyings which grew articulate-- +They seize me--I must speak them!--be they fate! _50 + +NOTES: +_25 odours B.; odour 1824. +_42 depth B.; depths 1824. +_45 sun-bright B.; sunlit 1824. +_39 Homer and Virgil.--[SHELLEY'S NOTE.] + +STROPHE 1. + +Naples! thou Heart of men which ever pantest +Naked, beneath the lidless eye of Heaven! +Elysian City, which to calm enchantest +The mutinous air and sea! they round thee, even _55 +As sleep round Love, are driven! +Metropolis of a ruined Paradise +Long lost, late won, and yet but half regained! +Bright Altar of the bloodless sacrifice +Which armed Victory offers up unstained _60 +To Love, the flower-enchained! +Thou which wert once, and then didst cease to be, +Now art, and henceforth ever shalt be, free, +If Hope, and Truth, and Justice can avail,-- +Hail, hail, all hail! _65 + +STROPHE 2. + +Thou youngest giant birth +Which from the groaning earth +Leap'st, clothed in armour of impenetrable scale! +Last of the Intercessors! +Who 'gainst the Crowned Transgressors _70 +Pleadest before God's love! Arrayed in Wisdom's mail, +Wave thy lightning lance in mirth +Nor let thy high heart fail, +Though from their hundred gates the leagued Oppressors +With hurried legions move! _75 +Hail, hail, all hail! + +ANTISTROPHE 1a. + +What though Cimmerian Anarchs dare blaspheme +Freedom and thee? thy shield is as a mirror +To make their blind slaves see, and with fierce gleam +To turn his hungry sword upon the wearer; _80 +A new Actaeon's error +Shall theirs have been--devoured by their own hounds! +Be thou like the imperial Basilisk +Killing thy foe with unapparent wounds! +Gaze on Oppression, till at that dread risk _85 +Aghast she pass from the Earth's disk: +Fear not, but gaze--for freemen mightier grow, +And slaves more feeble, gazing on their foe:-- +If Hope, and Truth, and Justice may avail, +Thou shalt be great--All hail! _90 + +ANTISTROPHE 2a. + +From Freedom's form divine, +From Nature's inmost shrine, +Strip every impious gawd, rend +Error veil by veil; +O'er Ruin desolate, +O'er Falsehood's fallen state, _95 +Sit thou sublime, unawed; be the Destroyer pale! +And equal laws be thine, +And winged words let sail, +Freighted with truth even from the throne of God: +That wealth, surviving fate, _100 +Be thine.--All hail! + +NOTE: +_100 wealth-surviving cj. A.C. Bradley. + +ANTISTROPHE 1b. + +Didst thou not start to hear Spain's thrilling paean +From land to land re-echoed solemnly, +Till silence became music? From the Aeaean +To the cold Alps, eternal Italy _105 +Starts to hear thine! The Sea +Which paves the desert streets of Venice laughs +In light, and music; widowed Genoa wan +By moonlight spells ancestral epitaphs, +Murmuring, 'Where is Doria?' fair Milan, _110 +Within whose veins long ran +The viper's palsying venom, lifts her heel +To bruise his head. The signal and the seal +(If Hope and Truth and Justice can avail) +Art thou of all these hopes.--O hail! _115 + +NOTES: +_104 Aeaea, the island of Circe.--[SHELLEY'S NOTE.] +_112 The viper was the armorial device of the Visconti, + tyrants of Milan.--[SHELLEY'S NOTE.] + +ANTISTROPHE 2b. + +Florence! beneath the sun, +Of cities fairest one, +Blushes within her bower for Freedom's expectation: +From eyes of quenchless hope +Rome tears the priestly cope, _120 +As ruling once by power, so now by admiration,-- +An athlete stripped to run +From a remoter station +For the high prize lost on Philippi's shore:-- +As then Hope, Truth, and Justice did avail, _125 +So now may Fraud and Wrong! O hail! + +EPODE 1b. + +Hear ye the march as of the Earth-born Forms +Arrayed against the ever-living Gods? +The crash and darkness of a thousand storms +Bursting their inaccessible abodes _130 +Of crags and thunder-clouds? +See ye the banners blazoned to the day, +Inwrought with emblems of barbaric pride? +Dissonant threats kill Silence far away, +The serene Heaven which wraps our Eden wide _135 +With iron light is dyed; +The Anarchs of the North lead forth their legions +Like Chaos o'er creation, uncreating; +An hundred tribes nourished on strange religions +And lawless slaveries,--down the aereal regions _140 +Of the white Alps, desolating, +Famished wolves that bide no waiting, +Blotting the glowing footsteps of old glory, +Trampling our columned cities into dust, +Their dull and savage lust _145 +On Beauty's corse to sickness satiating-- +They come! The fields they tread look black and hoary +With fire--from their red feet the streams run gory! + +EPODE 2b. + +Great Spirit, deepest Love! +Which rulest and dost move _150 +All things which live and are, within the Italian shore; +Who spreadest Heaven around it, +Whose woods, rocks, waves, surround it; +Who sittest in thy star, o'er Ocean's western floor; +Spirit of beauty! at whose soft command _155 +The sunbeams and the showers distil its foison +From the Earth's bosom chill; +Oh, bid those beams be each a blinding brand +Of lightning! bid those showers be dews of poison! +Bid the Earth's plenty kill! _160 +Bid thy bright Heaven above, +Whilst light and darkness bound it, +Be their tomb who planned +To make it ours and thine! +Or, with thine harmonizing ardours fill _165 +And raise thy sons, as o'er the prone horizon +Thy lamp feeds every twilight wave with fire-- +Be man's high hope and unextinct desire +The instrument to work thy will divine! +Then clouds from sunbeams, antelopes from leopards, _170 +And frowns and fears from thee, +Would not more swiftly flee +Than Celtic wolves from the Ausonian shepherds.-- +Whatever, Spirit, from thy starry shrine +Thou yieldest or withholdest, oh, let be _175 +This city of thy worship ever free! + +NOTES: +_143 old 1824; lost B. +_147 black 1824; blue B. + +*** + + +AUTUMN: A DIRGE. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +1. +The warm sun is failing, the bleak wind is wailing, +The bare boughs are sighing, the pale flowers are dying, +And the Year +On the earth her death-bed, in a shroud of leaves dead, +Is lying. _5 +Come, Months, come away, +From November to May, +In your saddest array; +Follow the bier +Of the dead cold Year, _10 +And like dim shadows watch by her sepulchre. + +2. +The chill rain is falling, the nipped worm is crawling, +The rivers are swelling, the thunder is knelling +For the Year; +The blithe swallows are flown, and the lizards each gone _15 +To his dwelling; +Come, Months, come away; +Put on white, black, and gray; +Let your light sisters play-- +Ye, follow the bier _20 +Of the dead cold Year, +And make her grave green with tear on tear. + +*** + + +THE WANING MOON. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +And like a dying lady, lean and pale, +Who totters forth, wrapped in a gauzy veil, +Out of her chamber, led by the insane +And feeble wanderings of her fading brain, +The moon arose up in the murky East, _5 +A white and shapeless mass-- + +*** + + +TO THE MOON. + +[Published (1) by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824, (2) by W.M. +Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works", 1870.] + +1. +Art thou pale for weariness +Of climbing heaven and gazing on the earth, +Wandering companionless +Among the stars that have a different birth,-- +And ever changing, like a joyless eye _5 +That finds no object worth its constancy? + +2. +Thou chosen sister of the Spirit, +That grazes on thee till in thee it pities... + +*** + + +DEATH. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +1. +Death is here and death is there, +Death is busy everywhere, +All around, within, beneath, +Above is death--and we are death. + +2. +Death has set his mark and seal _5 +On all we are and all we feel, +On all we know and all we fear, + +... + +3. +First our pleasures die--and then +Our hopes, and then our fears--and when +These are dead, the debt is due, _10 +Dust claims dust--and we die too. + +4. +All things that we love and cherish, +Like ourselves must fade and perish; +Such is our rude mortal lot-- +Love itself would, did they not. _15 + +*** + + +LIBERTY. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +1. +The fiery mountains answer each other; +Their thunderings are echoed from zone to zone; +The tempestuous oceans awake one another, +And the ice-rocks are shaken round Winter's throne, +When the clarion of the Typhoon is blown. _5 + +2. +From a single cloud the lightening flashes, +Whilst a thousand isles are illumined around, +Earthquake is trampling one city to ashes, +An hundred are shuddering and tottering; the sound +Is bellowing underground. _10 + +3. +But keener thy gaze than the lightening's glare, +And swifter thy step than the earthquake's tramp; +Thou deafenest the rage of the ocean; thy stare +Makes blind the volcanoes; the sun's bright lamp +To thine is a fen-fire damp. _15 + +4. +From billow and mountain and exhalation +The sunlight is darted through vapour and blast; +From spirit to spirit, from nation to nation, +From city to hamlet thy dawning is cast,-- +And tyrants and slaves are like shadows of night _20 +In the van of the morning light. + +NOTE: +_4 zone editions 1824, 1839; throne later editions. + +*** + + +SUMMER AND WINTER. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley in "The Keepsake", 1829. Mr. C.W. +Frederickson of Brooklyn possesses a transcript in Mrs. Shelley's +handwriting.] + +It was a bright and cheerful afternoon, +Towards the end of the sunny month of June, +When the north wind congregates in crowds +The floating mountains of the silver clouds +From the horizon--and the stainless sky _5 +Opens beyond them like eternity. +All things rejoiced beneath the sun; the weeds, +The river, and the corn-fields, and the reeds; +The willow leaves that glanced in the light breeze, +And the firm foliage of the larger trees. _10 + +It was a winter such as when birds die +In the deep forests; and the fishes lie +Stiffened in the translucent ice, which makes +Even the mud and slime of the warm lakes +A wrinkled clod as hard as brick; and when, _15 +Among their children, comfortable men +Gather about great fires, and yet feel cold: +Alas, then, for the homeless beggar old! + +NOTE: +_11 birds die 1839; birds do die 1829. + +*** + + +THE TOWER OF FAMINE. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley in "The Keepsake", 1829. Mr. C.W. +Frederickson of Brooklyn possesses a transcript in Mrs. Shelley's +handwriting.] + +Amid the desolation of a city, +Which was the cradle, and is now the grave +Of an extinguished people,--so that Pity + +Weeps o'er the shipwrecks of Oblivion's wave, +There stands the Tower of Famine. It is built _5 +Upon some prison-homes, whose dwellers rave + +For bread, and gold, and blood: Pain, linked to Guilt, +Agitates the light flame of their hours, +Until its vital oil is spent or spilt. + +There stands the pile, a tower amid the towers _10 +And sacred domes; each marble-ribbed roof, +The brazen-gated temples, and the bowers + +Of solitary wealth,--the tempest-proof +Pavilions of the dark Italian air,-- +Are by its presence dimmed--they stand aloof, _15 + +And are withdrawn--so that the world is bare; +As if a spectre wrapped in shapeless terror +Amid a company of ladies fair + +Should glide and glow, till it became a mirror +Of all their beauty, and their hair and hue, _20 +The life of their sweet eyes, with all its error, +Should be absorbed, till they to marble grew. + +NOTE: +_7 For]With 1829. + +*** + + +AN ALLEGORY. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +1. +A portal as of shadowy adamant +Stands yawning on the highway of the life +Which we all tread, a cavern huge and gaunt; +Around it rages an unceasing strife +Of shadows, like the restless clouds that haunt _5 +The gap of some cleft mountain, lifted high +Into the whirlwinds of the upper sky. + +2. +And many pass it by with careless tread, +Not knowing that a shadowy ... +Tracks every traveller even to where the dead _10 +Wait peacefully for their companion new; +But others, by more curious humour led, +Pause to examine;--these are very few, +And they learn little there, except to know +That shadows follow them where'er they go. _15 + +NOTE: +_8 pass Rossetti; passed editions 1824, 1839. + +*** + + +THE WORLD'S WANDERERS. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +1. +Tell me, thou Star, whose wings of light +Speed thee in thy fiery flight, +In what cavern of the night +Will thy pinions close now? + +2. +Tell me, Moon, thou pale and gray _5 +Pilgrim of Heaven's homeless way, +In what depth of night or day +Seekest thou repose now? + +3. +Weary Wind, who wanderest +Like the world's rejected guest, _10 +Hast thou still some secret nest +On the tree or billow? + +*** + + +SONNET. + +[Published by Leigh Hunt, "The Literary Pocket-Book", 1823. There is a +transcript amongst the Ollier manuscripts, and another in the Harvard +manuscript book.] + +Ye hasten to the grave! What seek ye there, +Ye restless thoughts and busy purposes +Of the idle brain, which the world's livery wear? +O thou quick heart, which pantest to possess +All that pale Expectation feigneth fair! _5 +Thou vainly curious mind which wouldest guess +Whence thou didst come, and whither thou must go, +And all that never yet was known would know-- +Oh, whither hasten ye, that thus ye press, +With such swift feet life's green and pleasant path, _10 +Seeking, alike from happiness and woe, +A refuge in the cavern of gray death? +O heart, and mind, and thoughts! what thing do you +Hope to inherit in the grave below? + +NOTE: +_1 grave Ollier manuscript; + dead Harvard manuscript, 1823, editions 1824, 1839. +_5 pale Expectation Ollier manuscript; + anticipation Harvard manuscript, 1823, editions 1824, 1839. +_7 must Harvard manuscript, 1823; mayst 1824; mayest editions 1839. +_8 all that Harvard manuscript, 1823; that which editions 1824, 1839. + would Harvard manuscript, 1823; wouldst editions 1839. + +*** + + +LINES TO A REVIEWER. + +[Published by Leigh Hunt, "The Literary Pocket-Book", 1823. These +lines, and the "Sonnet" immediately preceding, are signed Sigma in the +"Literary Pocket-Book".] + +Alas, good friend, what profit can you see +In hating such a hateless thing as me? +There is no sport in hate where all the rage +Is on one side: in vain would you assuage +Your frowns upon an unresisting smile, _5 +In which not even contempt lurks to beguile +Your heart, by some faint sympathy of hate. +Oh, conquer what you cannot satiate! +For to your passion I am far more coy +Than ever yet was coldest maid or boy _10 +In winter noon. Of your antipathy +If I am the Narcissus, you are free +To pine into a sound with hating me. + +NOTE: +_3 where editions 1824, 1839; when 1823. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT OF A SATIRE ON SATIRE. + +[Published by Edward Dowden, "Correspondence of Robert Southey and +Caroline Bowles", 1880.] + +If gibbets, axes, confiscations, chains, +And racks of subtle torture, if the pains +Of shame, of fiery Hell's tempestuous wave, +Seen through the caverns of the shadowy grave, +Hurling the damned into the murky air _5 +While the meek blest sit smiling; if Despair +And Hate, the rapid bloodhounds with which Terror +Hunts through the world the homeless steps of Error, +Are the true secrets of the commonweal +To make men wise and just;... _10 +And not the sophisms of revenge and fear, +Bloodier than is revenge... +Then send the priests to every hearth and home +To preach the burning wrath which is to come, +In words like flakes of sulphur, such as thaw _15 +The frozen tears... +If Satire's scourge could wake the slumbering hounds +Of Conscience, or erase the deeper wounds, +The leprous scars of callous Infamy; +If it could make the present not to be, _20 +Or charm the dark past never to have been, +Or turn regret to hope; who that has seen +What Southey is and was, would not exclaim, +'Lash on!' ... be the keen verse dipped in flame; +Follow his flight with winged words, and urge _25 +The strokes of the inexorable scourge +Until the heart be naked, till his soul +See the contagion's spots ... foul; +And from the mirror of Truth's sunlike shield, +From which his Parthian arrow... _30 +Flash on his sight the spectres of the past, +Until his mind's eye paint thereon-- +Let scorn like ... yawn below, +And rain on him like flakes of fiery snow. +This cannot be, it ought not, evil still-- _35 +Suffering makes suffering, ill must follow ill. +Rough words beget sad thoughts, ... and, beside, +Men take a sullen and a stupid pride +In being all they hate in others' shame, +By a perverse antipathy of fame. _40 +'Tis not worth while to prove, as I could, how +From the sweet fountains of our Nature flow +These bitter waters; I will only say, +If any friend would take Southey some day, +And tell him, in a country walk alone, _45 +Softening harsh words with friendship's gentle tone, +How incorrect his public conduct is, +And what men think of it, 'twere not amiss. +Far better than to make innocent ink-- + +*** + + +GOOD-NIGHT. + +[Published by Leigh Hunt over the signature Sigma, "The Literary +Pocket-Book", 1822. It is included in the Harvard manuscript book, and +there is a transcript by Shelley in a copy of "The Literary +Pocket-Book", 1819, presented by him to Miss Sophia Stacey, December +29, 1820. (See "Love's Philosophy" and "Time Long Past".) Our text is +that of the editio princeps, 1822, with which the Harvard manuscript +and "Posthumous Poems", 1824, agree. The variants of the Stacey +manuscript, 1820, are given in the footnotes.] + +1. +Good-night? ah! no; the hour is ill +Which severs those it should unite; +Let us remain together still, +Then it will be GOOD night. + +2. +How can I call the lone night good, _5 +Though thy sweet wishes wing its flight? +Be it not said, thought, understood-- +Then it will be--GOOD night. + +3. +To hearts which near each other move +From evening close to morning light, _10 +The night is good; because, my love, +They never SAY good-night. + +NOTES: +_1 Good-night? no, love! the night is ill Stacey manuscript. +_5 How were the night without thee good Stacey manuscript. +_9 The hearts that on each other beat Stacey manuscript. +_11 Have nights as good as they are sweet Stacey manuscript. +_12 But never SAY good night Stacey manuscript. + +*** + + +BUONA NOTTE. + +[Published by Medwin, "The Angler in Wales, or Days and Nights of +Sportsmen", 1834. The text is revised by Rossetti from the Boscombe +manuscript.] + +1. +'Buona notte, buona notte!'--Come mai +La notte sara buona senza te? +Non dirmi buona notte,--che tu sai, +La notte sa star buona da per se. + +2. +Solinga, scura, cupa, senza speme, _5 +La notte quando Lilla m'abbandona; +Pei cuori chi si batton insieme +Ogni notte, senza dirla, sara buona. + +3. +Come male buona notte ci suona +Con sospiri e parole interrotte!-- _10 +Il modo di aver la notte buona +E mai non di dir la buona notte. + +NOTES: +_2 sara]sia 1834. +_4 buona]bene 1834. +_9 Come]Quanto 1834. + +*** + + +ORPHEUS. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862; revised and +enlarged by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870.] + +A: +Not far from hence. From yonder pointed hill, +Crowned with a ring of oaks, you may behold +A dark and barren field, through which there flows, +Sluggish and black, a deep but narrow stream, +Which the wind ripples not, and the fair moon _5 +Gazes in vain, and finds no mirror there. +Follow the herbless banks of that strange brook +Until you pause beside a darksome pond, +The fountain of this rivulet, whose gush +Cannot be seen, hid by a rayless night _10 +That lives beneath the overhanging rock +That shades the pool--an endless spring of gloom, +Upon whose edge hovers the tender light, +Trembling to mingle with its paramour,-- +But, as Syrinx fled Pan, so night flies day, _15 +Or, with most sullen and regardless hate, +Refuses stern her heaven-born embrace. +On one side of this jagged and shapeless hill +There is a cave, from which there eddies up +A pale mist, like aereal gossamer, _20 +Whose breath destroys all life--awhile it veils +The rock--then, scattered by the wind, it flies +Along the stream, or lingers on the clefts, +Killing the sleepy worms, if aught bide there. +Upon the beetling edge of that dark rock _25 +There stands a group of cypresses; not such +As, with a graceful spire and stirring life, +Pierce the pure heaven of your native vale, +Whose branches the air plays among, but not +Disturbs, fearing to spoil their solemn grace; _30 +But blasted and all wearily they stand, +One to another clinging; their weak boughs +Sigh as the wind buffets them, and they shake +Beneath its blasts--a weatherbeaten crew! + +CHORUS: +What wondrous sound is that, mournful and faint, _35 +But more melodious than the murmuring wind +Which through the columns of a temple glides? + +A: +It is the wandering voice of Orpheus' lyre, +Borne by the winds, who sigh that their rude king +Hurries them fast from these air-feeding notes; _40 +But in their speed they bear along with them +The waning sound, scattering it like dew +Upon the startled sense. + +CHORUS: +Does he still sing? +Methought he rashly cast away his harp +When he had lost Eurydice. + +A: +Ah, no! _45 +Awhile he paused. As a poor hunted stag +A moment shudders on the fearful brink +Of a swift stream--the cruel hounds press on +With deafening yell, the arrows glance and wound,-- +He plunges in: so Orpheus, seized and torn _50 +By the sharp fangs of an insatiate grief, +Maenad-like waved his lyre in the bright air, +And wildly shrieked 'Where she is, it is dark!' +And then he struck from forth the strings a sound +Of deep and fearful melody. Alas! _55 +In times long past, when fair Eurydice +With her bright eyes sat listening by his side, +He gently sang of high and heavenly themes. +As in a brook, fretted with little waves +By the light airs of spring--each riplet makes _60 +A many-sided mirror for the sun, +While it flows musically through green banks, +Ceaseless and pauseless, ever clear and fresh, +So flowed his song, reflecting the deep joy +And tender love that fed those sweetest notes, _65 +The heavenly offspring of ambrosial food. +But that is past. Returning from drear Hell, +He chose a lonely seat of unhewn stone, +Blackened with lichens, on a herbless plain. +Then from the deep and overflowing spring _70 +Of his eternal ever-moving grief +There rose to Heaven a sound of angry song. +'Tis as a mighty cataract that parts +Two sister rocks with waters swift and strong, _75 +And casts itself with horrid roar and din +Adown a steep; from a perennial source +It ever flows and falls, and breaks the air +With loud and fierce, but most harmonious roar, +And as it falls casts up a vaporous spray +Which the sun clothes in hues of Iris light. _80 +Thus the tempestuous torrent of his grief +Is clothed in sweetest sounds and varying words +Of poesy. Unlike all human works, +It never slackens, and through every change +Wisdom and beauty and the power divine _85 +Of mighty poesy together dwell, +Mingling in sweet accord. As I have seen +A fierce south blast tear through the darkened sky, +Driving along a rack of winged clouds, +Which may not pause, but ever hurry on, _90 +As their wild shepherd wills them, while the stars, +Twinkling and dim, peep from between the plumes. +Anon the sky is cleared, and the high dome +Of serene Heaven, starred with fiery flowers, +Shuts in the shaken earth; or the still moon _95 +Swiftly, yet gracefully, begins her walk, +Rising all bright behind the eastern hills. +I talk of moon, and wind, and stars, and not +Of song; but, would I echo his high song, +Nature must lend me words ne'er used before, _100 +Or I must borrow from her perfect works, +To picture forth his perfect attributes. +He does no longer sit upon his throne +Of rock upon a desert herbless plain, +For the evergreen and knotted ilexes, _105 +And cypresses that seldom wave their boughs, +And sea-green olives with their grateful fruit, +And elms dragging along the twisted vines, +Which drop their berries as they follow fast, +And blackthorn bushes with their infant race _110 +Of blushing rose-blooms; beeches, to lovers dear, +And weeping willow trees; all swift or slow, +As their huge boughs or lighter dress permit, +Have circled in his throne, and Earth herself +Has sent from her maternal breast a growth _115 +Of starlike flowers and herbs of odour sweet, +To pave the temple that his poesy +Has framed, while near his feet grim lions couch, +And kids, fearless from love, creep near his lair. +Even the blind worms seem to feel the sound. _120 +The birds are silent, hanging down their heads, +Perched on the lowest branches of the trees; +Not even the nightingale intrudes a note +In rivalry, but all entranced she listens. + +NOTES: +_16, _17, _24 1870 only. +_45-_55 Ah, no!... melody 1870 only. +_66 1870 only. +_112 trees 1870; too 1862. +_113 huge 1870; long 1862. +_116 starlike 1870; starry 1862. odour 1862; odours 1870. + +*** + + +FIORDISPINA. + +[Published in part (lines 11-30) by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", +1824; in full (from the Boscombe manuscript) by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of +Shelley", 1862.] + +The season was the childhood of sweet June, +Whose sunny hours from morning until noon +Went creeping through the day with silent feet, +Each with its load of pleasure; slow yet sweet; +Like the long years of blest Eternity _5 +Never to be developed. Joy to thee, +Fiordispina and thy Cosimo, +For thou the wonders of the depth canst know +Of this unfathomable flood of hours, +Sparkling beneath the heaven which embowers-- _10 + +... + +They were two cousins, almost like to twins, +Except that from the catalogue of sins +Nature had rased their love--which could not be +But by dissevering their nativity. +And so they grew together like two flowers _15 +Upon one stem, which the same beams and showers +Lull or awaken in their purple prime, +Which the same hand will gather--the same clime +Shake with decay. This fair day smiles to see +All those who love--and who e'er loved like thee, _20 +Fiordispina? Scarcely Cosimo, +Within whose bosom and whose brain now glow +The ardours of a vision which obscure +The very idol of its portraiture. +He faints, dissolved into a sea of love; _25 +But thou art as a planet sphered above; +But thou art Love itself--ruling the motion +Of his subjected spirit: such emotion +Must end in sin and sorrow, if sweet May +Had not brought forth this morn--your wedding-day. _30 + +... + +'Lie there; sleep awhile in your own dew, +Ye faint-eyed children of the ... Hours,' +Fiordispina said, and threw the flowers +Which she had from the breathing-- + +... + +A table near of polished porphyry. _35 +They seemed to wear a beauty from the eye +That looked on them--a fragrance from the touch +Whose warmth ... checked their life; a light such +As sleepers wear, lulled by the voice they love, which did reprove _40 +The childish pity that she felt for them, +And a ... remorse that from their stem +She had divided such fair shapes ... made +A feeling in the ... which was a shade +Of gentle beauty on the flowers: there lay _45 +All gems that make the earth's dark bosom gay. +... rods of myrtle-buds and lemon-blooms, +And that leaf tinted lightly which assumes +The livery of unremembered snow-- +Violets whose eyes have drunk-- _50 + +... + +Fiordispina and her nurse are now +Upon the steps of the high portico, +Under the withered arm of Media +She flings her glowing arm + +... + +... step by step and stair by stair, _55 +That withered woman, gray and white and brown-- +More like a trunk by lichens overgrown +Than anything which once could have been human. +And ever as she goes the palsied woman + +... + +'How slow and painfully you seem to walk, _60 +Poor Media! you tire yourself with talk.' +'And well it may, +Fiordispina, dearest--well-a-day! +You are hastening to a marriage-bed; +I to the grave!'--'And if my love were dead, _65 +Unless my heart deceives me, I would lie +Beside him in my shroud as willingly +As now in the gay night-dress Lilla wrought.' +'Fie, child! Let that unseasonable thought +Not be remembered till it snows in June; _70 +Such fancies are a music out of tune +With the sweet dance your heart must keep to-night. +What! would you take all beauty and delight +Back to the Paradise from which you sprung, +And leave to grosser mortals?-- _75 +And say, sweet lamb, would you not learn the sweet +And subtle mystery by which spirits meet? +Who knows whether the loving game is played, +When, once of mortal [vesture] disarrayed, +The naked soul goes wandering here and there _80 +Through the wide deserts of Elysian air? +The violet dies not till it'-- + +NOTES: +_11 to 1824; two editions 1839. +_20 e'er 1862; ever editions 1824, 1839. +_25 sea edition 1862; sense editions 1824, 1839. + +*** + + +TIME LONG PAST. + +[Published by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870. +This is one of three poems (cf. "Love's Philosophy" and "Good-Night") +transcribed by Shelley in a copy of Leigh Hunt's "Literary Pocket-Book" +for 1819 presented by him to Miss Sophia Stacey, December 29, 1820.] + +1. +Like the ghost of a dear friend dead +Is Time long past. +A tone which is now forever fled, +A hope which is now forever past, +A love so sweet it could not last, _5 +Was Time long past. + +2. +There were sweet dreams in the night +Of Time long past: +And, was it sadness or delight, +Each day a shadow onward cast _10 +Which made us wish it yet might last-- +That Time long past. + +3. +There is regret, almost remorse, +For Time long past. +'Tis like a child's beloved corse _15 +A father watches, till at last +Beauty is like remembrance, cast +From Time long past. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: THE DESERTS OF DIM SLEEP. + +[Published by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870.] + +I went into the deserts of dim sleep-- +That world which, like an unknown wilderness, +Bounds this with its recesses wide and deep-- + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'THE VIEWLESS AND INVISIBLE CONSEQUENCE'. + +[Published by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870.] + +The viewless and invisible Consequence +Watches thy goings-out, and comings-in, +And...hovers o'er thy guilty sleep, +Unveiling every new-born deed, and thoughts +More ghastly than those deeds-- _5 + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: A SERPENT-FACE. + +[Published by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870.] + +His face was like a snake's--wrinkled and loose +And withered-- + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: DEATH IN LIFE. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +My head is heavy, my limbs are weary, +And it is not life that makes me move. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'SUCH HOPE, AS IS THE SICK DESPAIR OF GOOD'. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +Such hope, as is the sick despair of good, +Such fear, as is the certainty of ill, +Such doubt, as is pale Expectation's food +Turned while she tastes to poison, when the will +Is powerless, and the spirit... _5 + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'ALAS! THIS IS NOT WHAT I THOUGHT LIFE WAS'. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition. This +fragment is joined by Forman with that immediately preceding.] + +Alas! this is not what I thought life was. +I knew that there were crimes and evil men, +Misery and hate; nor did I hope to pass +Untouched by suffering, through the rugged glen. +In mine own heart I saw as in a glass _5 +The hearts of others ... And when +I went among my kind, with triple brass +Of calm endurance my weak breast I armed, +To bear scorn, fear, and hate, a woful mass! + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: MILTON'S SPIRIT. + +[Published by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870.] + +I dreamed that Milton's spirit rose, and took +From life's green tree his Uranian lute; +And from his touch sweet thunder flowed, and shook +All human things built in contempt of man,-- +And sanguine thrones and impious altars quaked, _5 +Prisons and citadels... + +NOTE: +_2 lute Uranian cj. A.C. Bradley. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'UNRISEN SPLENDOUR OF THE BRIGHTEST SUN'. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +Unrisen splendour of the brightest sun, +To rise upon our darkness, if the star +Now beckoning thee out of thy misty throne +Could thaw the clouds which wage an obscure war +With thy young brightness! _5 + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: PATER OMNIPOTENS. + +[Edited from manuscript Shelley E 4 in the Bodleian Library, and +published by Mr. C.D. Locock, "Examination" etc., Oxford, Clarendon +Press, 1903. Here placed conjecturally amongst the compositions of +1820, but of uncertain date, and belonging possibly to 1819 or a still +earlier year.] + +Serene in his unconquerable might +Endued[,] the Almighty King, his steadfast throne +Encompassed unapproachably with power +And darkness and deep solitude an awe +Stood like a black cloud on some aery cliff _5 +Embosoming its lightning--in his sight +Unnumbered glorious spirits trembling stood +Like slaves before their Lord--prostrate around +Heaven's multitudes hymned everlasting praise. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: TO THE MIND OF MAN. + +[Edited, published and here placed as the preceding.] + +Thou living light that in thy rainbow hues +Clothest this naked world; and over Sea +And Earth and air, and all the shapes that be +In peopled darkness of this wondrous world +The Spirit of thy glory dost diffuse _5 +... truth ... thou Vital Flame +Mysterious thought that in this mortal frame +Of things, with unextinguished lustre burnest +Now pale and faint now high to Heaven upcurled +That eer as thou dost languish still returnest _10 +And ever +Before the ... before the Pyramids + +So soon as from the Earth formless and rude +One living step had chased drear Solitude +Thou wert, Thought; thy brightness charmed the lids _15 +Of the vast snake Eternity, who kept +The tree of good and evil.-- + +*** + + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1820, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +We spent the latter part of the year 1819 in Florence, where Shelley +passed several hours daily in the Gallery, and made various notes on +its ancient works of art. His thoughts were a good deal taken up also +by the project of a steamboat, undertaken by a friend, an engineer, to +ply between Leghorn and Marseilles, for which he supplied a sum of +money. This was a sort of plan to delight Shelley, and he was greatly +disappointed when it was thrown aside. + +There was something in Florence that disagreed excessively with his +health, and he suffered far more pain than usual; so much so that we +left it sooner than we intended, and removed to Pisa, where we had some +friends, and, above all, where we could consult the celebrated Vacca as +to the cause of Shelley's sufferings. He, like every other medical man, +could only guess at that, and gave little hope of immediate relief; he +enjoined him to abstain from all physicians and medicine, and to leave +his complaint to Nature. As he had vainly consulted medical men of the +highest repute in England, he was easily persuaded to adopt this +advice. Pain and ill-health followed him to the end; but the residence +at Pisa agreed with him better than any other, and there in consequence +we remained. + +In the Spring we spent a week or two near Leghorn, borrowing the house +of some friends who were absent on a journey to England. It was on a +beautiful summer evening, while wandering among the lanes whose +myrtle-hedges were the bowers of the fire-flies, that we heard the +carolling of the skylark which inspired one of the most beautiful of +his poems. He addressed the letter to Mrs. Gisborne from this house, +which was hers: he had made his study of the workshop of her son, who +was an engineer. Mrs. Gisborne had been a friend of my father in her +younger days. She was a lady of great accomplishments, and charming +from her frank and affectionate nature. She had the most intense love +of knowledge, a delicate and trembling sensibility, and preserved +freshness of mind after a life of considerable adversity. As a +favourite friend of my father, we had sought her with eagerness; and +the most open and cordial friendship was established between us. + +Our stay at the Baths of San Giuliano was shortened by an accident. At +the foot of our garden ran the canal that communicated between the +Serchio and the Arno. The Serchio overflowed its banks, and, breaking +its bounds, this canal also overflowed; all this part of the country is +below the level of its rivers, and the consequence was that it was +speedily flooded. The rising waters filled the Square of the Baths, in +the lower part of which our house was situated. The canal overflowed in +the garden behind; the rising waters on either side at last burst open +the doors, and, meeting in the house, rose to the height of six feet. +It was a picturesque sight at night to see the peasants driving the +cattle from the plains below to the hills above the Baths. A fire was +kept up to guide them across the ford; and the forms of the men and the +animals showed in dark relief against the red glare of the flame, which +was reflected again in the waters that filled the Square. + +We then removed to Pisa, and took up our abode there for the winter. +The extreme mildness of the climate suited Shelley, and his solitude +was enlivened by an intercourse with several intimate friends. Chance +cast us strangely enough on this quiet half-unpeopled town; but its +very peace suited Shelley. Its river, the near mountains, and not +distant sea, added to its attractions, and were the objects of many +delightful excursions. We feared the south of Italy, and a hotter +climate, on account of our child; our former bereavement inspiring us +with terror. We seemed to take root here, and moved little afterwards; +often, indeed, entertaining projects for visiting other parts of Italy, +but still delaying. But for our fears on account of our child, I +believe we should have wandered over the world, both being passionately +fond of travelling. But human life, besides its great unalterable +necessities, is ruled by a thousand lilliputian ties that shackle at +the time, although it is difficult to account afterwards for their +influence over our destiny. + +*** + + +POEMS WRITTEN IN 1821. + + +DIRGE FOR THE YEAR. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824, and dated +January 1, 1821.] + +1. +Orphan Hours, the Year is dead, +Come and sigh, come and weep! +Merry Hours, smile instead, +For the Year is but asleep. +See, it smiles as it is sleeping, _5 +Mocking your untimely weeping. + +2. +As an earthquake rocks a corse +In its coffin in the clay, +So White Winter, that rough nurse, +Rocks the death-cold Year to-day; _10 +Solemn Hours! wail aloud +For your mother in her shroud. + +3. +As the wild air stirs and sways +The tree-swung cradle of a child, +So the breath of these rude days _15 +Rocks the Year:--be calm and mild, +Trembling Hours, she will arise +With new love within her eyes. + +4. +January gray is here, +Like a sexton by her grave; _20 +February bears the bier, +March with grief doth howl and rave, +And April weeps--but, O ye Hours! +Follow with May's fairest flowers. + +*** + + +TO NIGHT. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824. +There is a transcript in the Harvard manuscript book.] + +1. +Swiftly walk o'er the western wave, +Spirit of Night! +Out of the misty eastern cave, +Where, all the long and lone daylight, +Thou wovest dreams of joy and fear, _5 +'Which make thee terrible and dear,-- +Swift be thy flight! + +2. +Wrap thy form in a mantle gray, +Star-inwrought! +Blind with thine hair the eyes of Day; _10 +Kiss her until she be wearied out, +Then wander o'er city, and sea, and land, +Touching all with thine opiate wand-- +Come, long-sought! + +3. +When I arose and saw the dawn, _15 +I sighed for thee; +When light rode high, and the dew was gone, +And noon lay heavy on flower and tree, +And the weary Day turned to his rest, +Lingering like an unloved guest, I sighed for thee. _20 + +4. +Thy brother Death came, and cried, +Wouldst thou me? +Thy sweet child Sleep, the filmy-eyed, +Murmured like a noontide bee, _25 +Shall I nestle near thy side? +Wouldst thou me?--And I replied, +No, not thee! + +5. +Death will come when thou art dead, +Soon, too soon-- _30 +Sleep will come when thou art fled; +Of neither would I ask the boon +I ask of thee, beloved Night-- +Swift be thine approaching flight, +Come soon, soon! _35 + +NOTE: +_1 o'er Harvard manuscript; over editions 1824, 1839. + +*** + + +TIME. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +Unfathomable Sea! whose waves are years, +Ocean of Time, whose waters of deep woe +Are brackish with the salt of human tears! +Thou shoreless flood, which in thy ebb and flow +Claspest the limits of mortality, _5 +And sick of prey, yet howling on for more, +Vomitest thy wrecks on its inhospitable shore; +Treacherous in calm, and terrible in storm, +Who shall put forth on thee, +Unfathomable Sea? _10 + +*** + + +LINES. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +1. +Far, far away, O ye +Halcyons of Memory, +Seek some far calmer nest +Than this abandoned breast! +No news of your false spring _5 +To my heart's winter bring, +Once having gone, in vain +Ye come again. + +2. +Vultures, who build your bowers +High in the Future's towers, _10 +Withered hopes on hopes are spread! +Dying joys, choked by the dead, +Will serve your beaks for prey +Many a day. + +*** + + +FROM THE ARABIC: AN IMITATION. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824. There is an +intermediate draft amongst the Bodleian manuscripts. See Locock, +"Examination", etc., 1903, page 13.] + +1. +My faint spirit was sitting in the light +Of thy looks, my love; +It panted for thee like the hind at noon +For the brooks, my love. +Thy barb whose hoofs outspeed the tempest's flight _5 +Bore thee far from me; +My heart, for my weak feet were weary soon, +Did companion thee. + +2. +Ah! fleeter far than fleetest storm or steed +Or the death they bear, _10 +The heart which tender thought clothes like a dove +With the wings of care; +In the battle, in the darkness, in the need, +Shall mine cling to thee, +Nor claim one smile for all the comfort, love, _15 +It may bring to thee. + +NOTES: +_3 hoofs]feet B. +_7 were]grew B. +_9 Ah!]O B. + +*** + + +TO EMILIA VIVIANI. + +[Published, (1) by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824; (2, 1) by +Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862; (2, 2 and 3) by H. Buxton +Forman, "Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1876.] + +1. +Madonna, wherefore hast thou sent to me +Sweet-basil and mignonette? +Embleming love and health, which never yet +In the same wreath might be. +Alas, and they are wet! _5 +Is it with thy kisses or thy tears? +For never rain or dew +Such fragrance drew +From plant or flower--the very doubt endears +My sadness ever new, _10 +The sighs I breathe, the tears I shed for thee. + +2. +Send the stars light, but send not love to me, +In whom love ever made +Health like a heap of embers soon to fade-- + +*** + + +THE FUGITIVES. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems". 1824.] + +1. +The waters are flashing, +The white hail is dashing, +The lightnings are glancing, +The hoar-spray is dancing-- +Away! _5 + +The whirlwind is rolling, +The thunder is tolling, +The forest is swinging, +The minster bells ringing-- +Come away! _10 + +The Earth is like Ocean, +Wreck-strewn and in motion: +Bird, beast, man and worm +Have crept out of the storm-- +Come away! _15 + +2. +'Our boat has one sail +And the helmsman is pale;-- +A bold pilot I trow, +Who should follow us now,'-- +Shouted he-- _20 + +And she cried: 'Ply the oar! +Put off gaily from shore!'-- +As she spoke, bolts of death +Mixed with hail, specked their path +O'er the sea. _25 + +And from isle, tower and rock, +The blue beacon-cloud broke, +And though dumb in the blast, +The red cannon flashed fast +From the lee. _30 + +3. +And 'Fear'st thou?' and 'Fear'st thou?' +And Seest thou?' and 'Hear'st thou?' +And 'Drive we not free +O'er the terrible sea, +I and thou?' _35 + +One boat-cloak did cover +The loved and the lover-- +Their blood beats one measure, +They murmur proud pleasure +Soft and low;-- _40 + +While around the lashed Ocean, +Like mountains in motion, +Is withdrawn and uplifted, +Sunk, shattered and shifted +To and fro. _45 + +4. +In the court of the fortress +Beside the pale portress, +Like a bloodhound well beaten +The bridegroom stands, eaten +By shame; _50 + +On the topmost watch-turret, +As a death-boding spirit +Stands the gray tyrant father, +To his voice the mad weather +Seems tame; _55 + +And with curses as wild +As e'er clung to child, +He devotes to the blast, +The best, loveliest and last +Of his name! _60 + +NOTES: +_28 And though]Though editions 1839. +_57 clung]cling editions 1839. + +*** + + +TO --. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +Music, when soft voices die, +Vibrates in the memory-- +Odours, when sweet violets sicken, +Live within the sense they quicken. + +Rose leaves, when the rose is dead, _5 +Are heaped for the beloved's bed; +And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone, +Love itself shall slumber on. + +*** + + +SONG. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824. +There is a transcript in the Harvard manuscript book.] + +1. +Rarely, rarely, comest thou, +Spirit of Delight! +Wherefore hast thou left me now +Many a day and night? +Many a weary night and day _5 +'Tis since thou art fled away. + +2. +How shall ever one like me +Win thee back again? +With the joyous and the free +Thou wilt scoff at pain. _10 +Spirit false! thou hast forgot +All but those who need thee not. + +3. +As a lizard with the shade +Of a trembling leaf, +Thou with sorrow art dismayed; _15 +Even the sighs of grief +Reproach thee, that thou art not near, +And reproach thou wilt not hear. + +4. +Let me set my mournful ditty +To a merry measure; _20 +Thou wilt never come for pity, +Thou wilt come for pleasure; +Pity then will cut away +Those cruel wings, and thou wilt stay. + +5. +I love all that thou lovest, _25 +Spirit of Delight! +The fresh Earth in new leaves dressed, +And the starry night; +Autumn evening, and the morn +When the golden mists are born. _30 + +6. +I love snow, and all the forms +Of the radiant frost; +I love waves, and winds, and storms, +Everything almost +Which is Nature's, and may be _35 +Untainted by man's misery. + +7. +I love tranquil solitude, +And such society +As is quiet, wise, and good +Between thee and me _40 +What difference? but thou dost possess +The things I seek, not love them less. + +8. +I love Love--though he has wings, +And like light can flee, +But above all other things, _45 +Spirit, I love thee-- +Thou art love and life! Oh, come, +Make once more my heart thy home. + +*** + + +MUTABILITY. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824. +There is a fair draft amongst the Boscombe manuscripts.] + +1. +The flower that smiles to-day +To-morrow dies; +All that we wish to stay +Tempts and then flies. +What is this world's delight? _5 +Lightning that mocks the night, +Brief even as bright. + +2. +Virtue, how frail it is! +Friendship how rare! +Love, how it sells poor bliss _10 +For proud despair! +But we, though soon they fall, +Survive their joy, and all +Which ours we call. + +3. +Whilst skies are blue and bright, _15 +Whilst flowers are gay, +Whilst eyes that change ere night +Make glad the day; +Whilst yet the calm hours creep, +Dream thou--and from thy sleep _20 +Then wake to weep. + +NOTES: +_9 how Boscombe manuscript; too editions 1824, 1839. +_12 though soon they fall]though soon we or so soon they cj. Rossetti. + +*** + + +LINES WRITTEN ON HEARING THE NEWS OF THE DEATH OF NAPOLEON. + +[Published with "Hellas", 1821.] + +What! alive and so bold, O Earth? +Art thou not overbold? +What! leapest thou forth as of old +In the light of thy morning mirth, +The last of the flock of the starry fold? _5 +Ha! leapest thou forth as of old? +Are not the limbs still when the ghost is fled, +And canst thou move, Napoleon being dead? + +How! is not thy quick heart cold? +What spark is alive on thy hearth? _10 +How! is not HIS death-knell knolled? +And livest THOU still, Mother Earth? +Thou wert warming thy fingers old +O'er the embers covered and cold +Of that most fiery spirit, when it fled-- _15 +What, Mother, do you laugh now he is dead? + +'Who has known me of old,' replied Earth, +'Or who has my story told? +It is thou who art overbold.' +And the lightning of scorn laughed forth _20 +As she sung, 'To my bosom I fold +All my sons when their knell is knolled, +And so with living motion all are fed, +And the quick spring like weeds out of the dead. + +'Still alive and still bold,' shouted Earth, _25 +'I grow bolder and still more bold. +The dead fill me ten thousandfold +Fuller of speed, and splendour, and mirth. +I was cloudy, and sullen, and cold, +Like a frozen chaos uprolled, _30 +Till by the spirit of the mighty dead +My heart grew warm. I feed on whom I fed. + +'Ay, alive and still bold.' muttered Earth, +'Napoleon's fierce spirit rolled, +In terror and blood and gold, _35 +A torrent of ruin to death from his birth. +Leave the millions who follow to mould +The metal before it be cold; +And weave into his shame, which like the dead +Shrouds me, the hopes that from his glory fled.' _40 + +*** + + +SONNET: POLITICAL GREATNESS. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824. There is a +transcript, headed "Sonnet to the Republic of Benevento", in the +Harvard manuscript book.] + +Nor happiness, nor majesty, nor fame, +Nor peace, nor strength, nor skill in arms or arts, +Shepherd those herds whom tyranny makes tame; +Verse echoes not one beating of their hearts, +History is but the shadow of their shame, _5 +Art veils her glass, or from the pageant starts +As to oblivion their blind millions fleet, +Staining that Heaven with obscene imagery +Of their own likeness. What are numbers knit +By force or custom? Man who man would be, _10 +Must rule the empire of himself; in it +Must be supreme, establishing his throne +On vanquished will, quelling the anarchy +Of hopes and fears, being himself alone. + +*** + + +THE AZIOLA. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley in "The Keepsake", 1829.] + +1. +'Do you not hear the Aziola cry? +Methinks she must be nigh,' +Said Mary, as we sate +In dusk, ere stars were lit, or candles brought; +And I, who thought _5 +This Aziola was some tedious woman, +Asked, 'Who is Aziola?' How elate +I felt to know that it was nothing human, +No mockery of myself to fear or hate: +And Mary saw my soul, _10 +And laughed, and said, 'Disquiet yourself not; +'Tis nothing but a little downy owl.' + +2. +Sad Aziola! many an eventide +Thy music I had heard +By wood and stream, meadow and mountain-side, _15 +And fields and marshes wide,-- +Such as nor voice, nor lute, nor wind, nor bird, +The soul ever stirred; +Unlike and far sweeter than them all. +Sad Aziola! from that moment I _20 +Loved thee and thy sad cry. + +NOTES: +_4 ere stars]ere the stars editions 1839. +_9 or]and editions 1839. +_19 them]they editions 1839. + +*** + + +A LAMENT. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +1. +O world! O life! O time! +On whose last steps I climb, +Trembling at that where I had stood before; +When will return the glory of your prime? +No more--Oh, never more! _5 + +2. +Out of the day and night +A joy has taken flight; +Fresh spring, and summer, and winter hoar, +Move my faint heart with grief, but with delight +No more--Oh, never more! _10 + +*** + + +REMEMBRANCE. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824, where it is +entitled "A Lament". Three manuscript copies are extant: The Trelawny +manuscript ("Remembrance"), the Harvard manuscript ("Song") and the +Houghton manuscript--the last written by Shelley on a flyleaf of a copy +of "Adonais".] + +1. +Swifter far than summer's flight-- +Swifter far than youth's delight-- +Swifter far than happy night, +Art thou come and gone-- +As the earth when leaves are dead, _5 +As the night when sleep is sped, +As the heart when joy is fled, +I am left lone, alone. + +2. +The swallow summer comes again-- +The owlet night resumes her reign-- _10 +But the wild-swan youth is fain +To fly with thee, false as thou.-- +My heart each day desires the morrow; +Sleep itself is turned to sorrow; +Vainly would my winter borrow _15 +Sunny leaves from any bough. + +3. +Lilies for a bridal bed-- +Roses for a matron's head-- +Violets for a maiden dead-- +Pansies let MY flowers be: _20 +On the living grave I bear +Scatter them without a tear-- +Let no friend, however dear, +Waste one hope, one fear for me. + +NOTES: +_5-_7 So editions 1824, 1839, Trelawny manuscript, Harvard manuscript; + As the wood when leaves are shed, + As the night when sleep is fled, + As the heart when joy is dead Houghton manuscript. +_13 So editions 1824, 1839, Harvard manuscript, Houghton manuscript. + My heart to-day desires to-morrow Trelawny manuscript. +_20 So editions 1824, 1839, Harvard manuscript, Houghton manuscript. + Sadder flowers find for me Trelawny manuscript. +_24 one hope, one fear]a hope, a fear Trelawny manuscript. + +*** + + +TO EDWARD WILLIAMS. + +[Published in Ascham's edition of the "Poems", 1834. +There is a copy amongst the Trelawny manuscripts.] + +1. +The serpent is shut out from Paradise. +The wounded deer must seek the herb no more +In which its heart-cure lies: +The widowed dove must cease to haunt a bower +Like that from which its mate with feigned sighs _5 +Fled in the April hour. +I too must seldom seek again +Near happy friends a mitigated pain. + +2. +Of hatred I am proud,--with scorn content; +Indifference, that once hurt me, now is grown _10 +Itself indifferent; +But, not to speak of love, pity alone +Can break a spirit already more than bent. +The miserable one +Turns the mind's poison into food,-- _15 +Its medicine is tears,--its evil good. + +3. +Therefore, if now I see you seldomer, +Dear friends, dear FRIEND! know that I only fly +Your looks, because they stir +Griefs that should sleep, and hopes that cannot die: _20 +The very comfort that they minister +I scarce can bear, yet I, +So deeply is the arrow gone, +Should quickly perish if it were withdrawn. + +4. +When I return to my cold home, you ask _25 +Why I am not as I have ever been. +YOU spoil me for the task +Of acting a forced part in life's dull scene,-- +Of wearing on my brow the idle mask +Of author, great or mean, _30 +In the world's carnival. I sought +Peace thus, and but in you I found it not. + +5. +Full half an hour, to-day, I tried my lot +With various flowers, and every one still said, +'She loves me--loves me not.' _35 +And if this meant a vision long since fled-- +If it meant fortune, fame, or peace of thought-- +If it meant,--but I dread +To speak what you may know too well: +Still there was truth in the sad oracle. _40 + +6. +The crane o'er seas and forests seeks her home; +No bird so wild but has its quiet nest, +When it no more would roam; +The sleepless billows on the ocean's breast +Break like a bursting heart, and die in foam, _45 +And thus at length find rest: +Doubtless there is a place of peace +Where MY weak heart and all its throbs will cease. + +7. +I asked her, yesterday, if she believed +That I had resolution. One who HAD _50 +Would ne'er have thus relieved +His heart with words,--but what his judgement bade +Would do, and leave the scorner unrelieved. +These verses are too sad +To send to you, but that I know, _55 +Happy yourself, you feel another's woe. + +NOTES: +_10 Indifference, which once hurt me, is now grown Trelawny manuscript. +_18 Dear friends, dear friend Trelawny manuscript, 1839, 2nd edition; + Dear gentle friend 1834, 1839, 1st edition. +_26 ever]lately Trelawny manuscript. +_28 in Trelawny manuscript; on 1834, editions 1839, +_43 When 1839, 2nd edition; Whence 1834, 1839, 1st edition. +_48 will 1839, 2nd edition; shall 1834, 1839, 1st edition. +_53 unrelieved Trelawny manuscript, 1839, 2nd. edition; + unreprieved 1834, 1839, 1st edition. +_54 are]were Trelawny manuscript. + +*** + + +TO --. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +1. +One word is too often profaned +For me to profane it, +One feeling too falsely disdained +For thee to disdain it; +One hope is too like despair _5 +For prudence to smother, +And pity from thee more dear +Than that from another. + +2. +I can give not what men call love, +But wilt thou accept not _10 +The worship the heart lifts above +And the Heavens reject not,-- +The desire of the moth for the star, +Of the night for the morrow, +The devotion to something afar _15 +From the sphere of our sorrow? + +*** + + +TO --. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824. +There is a Boscombe manuscript.] + +1. +When passion's trance is overpast, +If tenderness and truth could last, +Or live, whilst all wild feelings keep +Some mortal slumber, dark and deep, +I should not weep, I should not weep! _5 + +2. +It were enough to feel, to see, +Thy soft eyes gazing tenderly, +And dream the rest--and burn and be +The secret food of fires unseen, +Couldst thou but be as thou hast been, _10 + +3. +After the slumber of the year +The woodland violets reappear; +All things revive in field or grove, +And sky and sea, but two, which move +And form all others, life and love. _15 + +NOTE: +_15 form Boscombe manuscript; for editions 1824, 1839. + +*** + + +A BRIDAL SONG. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +1. +The golden gates of Sleep unbar +Where Strength and Beauty, met together, +Kindle their image like a star +In a sea of glassy weather! +Night, with all thy stars look down,-- _5 +Darkness, weep thy holiest dew,-- +Never smiled the inconstant moon +On a pair so true. +Let eyes not see their own delight;-- +Haste, swift Hour, and thy flight _10 +Oft renew. + +2. +Fairies, sprites, and angels, keep her! +Holy stars, permit no wrong! +And return to wake the sleeper, +Dawn,--ere it be long! _15 +O joy! O fear! what will be done +In the absence of the sun! +Come along! + +*** + + +EPITHALAMIUM. + +ANOTHER VERSION OF THE PRECEDING. + +[Published by Medwin, "Life of Shelley", 1847.] + +Night, with all thine eyes look down! +Darkness shed its holiest dew! +When ever smiled the inconstant moon +On a pair so true? +Hence, coy hour! and quench thy light, _5 +Lest eyes see their own delight! +Hence, swift hour! and thy loved flight +Oft renew. + +BOYS: +O joy! O fear! what may be done +In the absence of the sun? _10 +Come along! +The golden gates of sleep unbar! +When strength and beauty meet together, +Kindles their image like a star +In a sea of glassy weather. _15 +Hence, coy hour! and quench thy light, +Lest eyes see their own delight! +Hence, swift hour! and thy loved flight +Oft renew. + +GIRLS: +O joy! O fear! what may be done _20 +In the absence of the sun? +Come along! +Fairies! sprites! and angels, keep her! +Holiest powers, permit no wrong! +And return, to wake the sleeper, _25 +Dawn, ere it be long. +Hence, swift hour! and quench thy light, +Lest eyes see their own delight! +Hence, coy hour! and thy loved flight +Oft renew. _30 + +BOYS AND GIRLS: +O joy! O fear! what will be done +In the absence of the sun? +Come along! + +NOTE: +_17 Lest]Let 1847. + +*** + + +ANOTHER VERSION OF THE SAME. + +[Published by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870, +from the Trelawny manuscript of Edward Williams's play, "The Promise: +or, A Year, a Month, and a Day".] + +BOYS SING: +Night! with all thine eyes look down! +Darkness! weep thy holiest dew! +Never smiled the inconstant moon +On a pair so true. +Haste, coy hour! and quench all light, _5 +Lest eyes see their own delight! +Haste, swift hour! and thy loved flight +Oft renew! + +GIRLS SING: +Fairies, sprites, and angels, keep her! +Holy stars! permit no wrong! _10 +And return, to wake the sleeper, +Dawn, ere it be long! +O joy! O fear! there is not one +Of us can guess what may be done +In the absence of the sun:-- _15 +Come along! + +BOYS: +Oh! linger long, thou envious eastern lamp +In the damp +Caves of the deep! + +GIRLS: +Nay, return, Vesper! urge thy lazy car! _20 +Swift unbar +The gates of Sleep! + +CHORUS: +The golden gate of Sleep unbar, +When Strength and Beauty, met together, +Kindle their image, like a star _25 +In a sea of glassy weather. +May the purple mist of love +Round them rise, and with them move, +Nourishing each tender gem +Which, like flowers, will burst from them. _30 +As the fruit is to the tree +May their children ever be! + +*** + + +LOVE, HOPE, DESIRE, AND FEAR. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862. 'A very free +translation of Brunetto Latini's "Tesoretto", lines 81-154.'--A.C. +Bradley.] + +... + +And many there were hurt by that strong boy, +His name, they said, was Pleasure, +And near him stood, glorious beyond measure +Four Ladies who possess all empery +In earth and air and sea, _5 +Nothing that lives from their award is free. +Their names will I declare to thee, +Love, Hope, Desire, and Fear, +And they the regents are +Of the four elements that frame the heart, _10 +And each diversely exercised her art +By force or circumstance or sleight +To prove her dreadful might +Upon that poor domain. +Desire presented her [false] glass, and then _15 +The spirit dwelling there +Was spellbound to embrace what seemed so fair +Within that magic mirror, +And dazed by that bright error, +It would have scorned the [shafts] of the avenger _20 +And death, and penitence, and danger, +Had not then silent Fear +Touched with her palsying spear, +So that as if a frozen torrent +The blood was curdled in its current; _25 +It dared not speak, even in look or motion, +But chained within itself its proud devotion. +Between Desire and Fear thou wert +A wretched thing, poor heart! +Sad was his life who bore thee in his breast, _30 +Wild bird for that weak nest. +Till Love even from fierce Desire it bought, +And from the very wound of tender thought +Drew solace, and the pity of sweet eyes +Gave strength to bear those gentle agonies, _35 +Surmount the loss, the terror, and the sorrow. +Then Hope approached, she who can borrow +For poor to-day, from rich tomorrow, +And Fear withdrew, as night when day +Descends upon the orient ray, _40 +And after long and vain endurance +The poor heart woke to her assurance. +--At one birth these four were born +With the world's forgotten morn, +And from Pleasure still they hold _45 +All it circles, as of old. +When, as summer lures the swallow, +Pleasure lures the heart to follow-- +O weak heart of little wit! +The fair hand that wounded it, _50 +Seeking, like a panting hare, +Refuge in the lynx's lair, +Love, Desire, Hope, and Fear, +Ever will be near. + +*** + + +FRAGMENTS WRITTEN FOR HELLAS. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +1. +Fairest of the Destinies, +Disarray thy dazzling eyes: +Keener far thy lightnings are +Than the winged [bolts] thou bearest, +And the smile thou wearest _5 +Wraps thee as a star +Is wrapped in light. + +2. +Could Arethuse to her forsaken urn +From Alpheus and the bitter Doris run, +Or could the morning shafts of purest light _10 +Again into the quivers of the Sun +Be gathered--could one thought from its wild flight +Return into the temple of the brain +Without a change, without a stain,-- +Could aught that is, ever again _15 +Be what it once has ceased to be, +Greece might again be free! + +3. +A star has fallen upon the earth +Mid the benighted nations, +A quenchless atom of immortal light, _20 +A living spark of Night, +A cresset shaken from the constellations. +Swifter than the thunder fell +To the heart of Earth, the well +Where its pulses flow and beat, _25 +And unextinct in that cold source +Burns, and on ... course +Guides the sphere which is its prison, +Like an angelic spirit pent +In a form of mortal birth, _30 +Till, as a spirit half-arisen +Shatters its charnel, it has rent, +In the rapture of its mirth, +The thin and painted garment of the Earth, +Ruining its chaos--a fierce breath _35 +Consuming all its forms of living death. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'I WOULD NOT BE A KING'. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition.] + +I would not be a king--enough +Of woe it is to love; +The path to power is steep and rough, +And tempests reign above. +I would not climb the imperial throne; _5 +'Tis built on ice which fortune's sun +Thaws in the height of noon. +Then farewell, king, yet were I one, +Care would not come so soon. +Would he and I were far away _10 +Keeping flocks on Himalay! + +*** + + +GINEVRA. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824, +and dated 'Pisa, 1821.'] + +Wild, pale, and wonder-stricken, even as one +Who staggers forth into the air and sun +From the dark chamber of a mortal fever, +Bewildered, and incapable, and ever +Fancying strange comments in her dizzy brain _5 +Of usual shapes, till the familiar train +Of objects and of persons passed like things +Strange as a dreamer's mad imaginings, +Ginevra from the nuptial altar went; +The vows to which her lips had sworn assent _10 +Rung in her brain still with a jarring din, +Deafening the lost intelligence within. + +And so she moved under the bridal veil, +Which made the paleness of her cheek more pale, +And deepened the faint crimson of her mouth, _15 +And darkened her dark locks, as moonlight doth,-- +And of the gold and jewels glittering there +She scarce felt conscious,--but the weary glare +Lay like a chaos of unwelcome light, +Vexing the sense with gorgeous undelight, _20 +A moonbeam in the shadow of a cloud +Was less heavenly fair--her face was bowed, +And as she passed, the diamonds in her hair +Were mirrored in the polished marble stair +Which led from the cathedral to the street; _25 +And ever as she went her light fair feet +Erased these images. + +The bride-maidens who round her thronging came, +Some with a sense of self-rebuke and shame, +Envying the unenviable; and others +Making the joy which should have been another's _30 +Their own by gentle sympathy; and some +Sighing to think of an unhappy home: +Some few admiring what can ever lure +Maidens to leave the heaven serene and pure +Of parents' smiles for life's great cheat; a thing _35 +Bitter to taste, sweet in imagining. + +But they are all dispersed--and, lo! she stands +Looking in idle grief on her white hands, +Alone within the garden now her own; _40 +And through the sunny air, with jangling tone, +The music of the merry marriage-bells, +Killing the azure silence, sinks and swells;-- +Absorbed like one within a dream who dreams +That he is dreaming, until slumber seems _45 +A mockery of itself--when suddenly +Antonio stood before her, pale as she. +With agony, with sorrow, and with pride, +He lifted his wan eyes upon the bride, +And said--'Is this thy faith?' and then as one _50 +Whose sleeping face is stricken by the sun +With light like a harsh voice, which bids him rise +And look upon his day of life with eyes +Which weep in vain that they can dream no more, +Ginevra saw her lover, and forbore _55 +To shriek or faint, and checked the stifling blood +Rushing upon her heart, and unsubdued +Said--'Friend, if earthly violence or ill, +Suspicion, doubt, or the tyrannic will +Of parents, chance or custom, time or change, _60 +Or circumstance, or terror, or revenge, +Or wildered looks, or words, or evil speech, +With all their stings and venom can impeach +Our love,--we love not:--if the grave which hides +The victim from the tyrant, and divides _65 +The cheek that whitens from the eyes that dart +Imperious inquisition to the heart +That is another's, could dissever ours, +We love not.'--'What! do not the silent hours +Beckon thee to Gherardi's bridal bed? _70 +Is not that ring'--a pledge, he would have said, +Of broken vows, but she with patient look +The golden circle from her finger took, +And said--'Accept this token of my faith, +The pledge of vows to be absolved by death; _75 +And I am dead or shall be soon--my knell +Will mix its music with that merry bell, +Does it not sound as if they sweetly said +"We toll a corpse out of the marriage-bed"? +The flowers upon my bridal chamber strewn _80 +Will serve unfaded for my bier--so soon +That even the dying violet will not die +Before Ginevra.' The strong fantasy +Had made her accents weaker and more weak, +And quenched the crimson life upon her cheek, _85 +And glazed her eyes, and spread an atmosphere +Round her, which chilled the burning noon with fear, +Making her but an image of the thought +Which, like a prophet or a shadow, brought +News of the terrors of the coming time. _90 +Like an accuser branded with the crime +He would have cast on a beloved friend, +Whose dying eyes reproach not to the end +The pale betrayer--he then with vain repentance +Would share, he cannot now avert, the sentence-- _95 +Antonio stood and would have spoken, when +The compound voice of women and of men +Was heard approaching; he retired, while she +Was led amid the admiring company +Back to the palace,--and her maidens soon _100 +Changed her attire for the afternoon, +And left her at her own request to keep +An hour of quiet rest:--like one asleep +With open eyes and folded hands she lay, +Pale in the light of the declining day. _105 + +Meanwhile the day sinks fast, the sun is set, +And in the lighted hall the guests are met; +The beautiful looked lovelier in the light +Of love, and admiration, and delight +Reflected from a thousand hearts and eyes, _110 +Kindling a momentary Paradise. +This crowd is safer than the silent wood, +Where love's own doubts disturb the solitude; +On frozen hearts the fiery rain of wine +Falls, and the dew of music more divine _115 +Tempers the deep emotions of the time +To spirits cradled in a sunny clime:-- +How many meet, who never yet have met, +To part too soon, but never to forget. +How many saw the beauty, power and wit _120 +Of looks and words which ne'er enchanted yet; +But life's familiar veil was now withdrawn, +As the world leaps before an earthquake's dawn, +And unprophetic of the coming hours, +The matin winds from the expanded flowers _125 +Scatter their hoarded incense, and awaken +The earth, until the dewy sleep is shaken +From every living heart which it possesses, +Through seas and winds, cities and wildernesses, +As if the future and the past were all _130 +Treasured i' the instant;--so Gherardi's hall +Laughed in the mirth of its lord's festival, +Till some one asked--'Where is the Bride?' And then +A bridesmaid went,--and ere she came again +A silence fell upon the guests--a pause _135 +Of expectation, as when beauty awes +All hearts with its approach, though unbeheld; +Then wonder, and then fear that wonder quelled;-- +For whispers passed from mouth to ear which drew +The colour from the hearer's cheeks, and flew _140 +Louder and swifter round the company; +And then Gherardi entered with an eye +Of ostentatious trouble, and a crowd +Surrounded him, and some were weeping loud. + +They found Ginevra dead! if it be death _145 +To lie without motion, or pulse, or breath, +With waxen cheeks, and limbs cold, stiff, and white, +And open eyes, whose fixed and glassy light +Mocked at the speculation they had owned. +If it be death, when there is felt around _150 +A smell of clay, a pale and icy glare, +And silence, and a sense that lifts the hair +From the scalp to the ankles, as it were +Corruption from the spirit passing forth, +And giving all it shrouded to the earth, _155 +And leaving as swift lightning in its flight +Ashes, and smoke, and darkness: in our night +Of thought we know thus much of death,--no more +Than the unborn dream of our life before +Their barks are wrecked on its inhospitable shore. _160 +The marriage feast and its solemnity +Was turned to funeral pomp--the company, +With heavy hearts and looks, broke up; nor they +Who loved the dead went weeping on their way +Alone, but sorrow mixed with sad surprise _165 +Loosened the springs of pity in all eyes, +On which that form, whose fate they weep in vain, +Will never, thought they, kindle smiles again. +The lamps which, half extinguished in their haste, +Gleamed few and faint o'er the abandoned feast, _170 +Showed as it were within the vaulted room +A cloud of sorrow hanging, as if gloom +Had passed out of men's minds into the air. +Some few yet stood around Gherardi there, +Friends and relations of the dead,--and he, _175 +A loveless man, accepted torpidly +The consolation that he wanted not; +Awe in the place of grief within him wrought. +Their whispers made the solemn silence seem +More still--some wept,... _180 +Some melted into tears without a sob, +And some with hearts that might be heard to throb +Leaned on the table and at intervals +Shuddered to hear through the deserted halls +And corridors the thrilling shrieks which came _185 +Upon the breeze of night, that shook the flame +Of every torch and taper as it swept +From out the chamber where the women kept;-- +Their tears fell on the dear companion cold +Of pleasures now departed; then was knolled _190 +The bell of death, and soon the priests arrived, +And finding Death their penitent had shrived, +Returned like ravens from a corpse whereon +A vulture has just feasted to the bone. +And then the mourning women came.-- _195 + +... + +THE DIRGE. + +Old winter was gone +In his weakness back to the mountains hoar, +And the spring came down +From the planet that hovers upon the shore + +Where the sea of sunlight encroaches _200 +On the limits of wintry night;-- +If the land, and the air, and the sea, +Rejoice not when spring approaches, +We did not rejoice in thee, +Ginevra! _205 + +She is still, she is cold +On the bridal couch, +One step to the white deathbed, +And one to the bier, +And one to the charnel--and one, oh where? _210 +The dark arrow fled +In the noon. + +Ere the sun through heaven once more has rolled, +The rats in her heart +Will have made their nest, _215 +And the worms be alive in her golden hair, +While the Spirit that guides the sun, +Sits throned in his flaming chair, +She shall sleep. + +NOTES: +22 Was]Were cj. Rossetti.old +26 ever 1824; even editions 1839. +_37 Bitter editions 1839; Better 1824. +_63 wanting in 1824. +_103 quiet rest cj. A.C. Bradley; quiet and rest 1824. +_129 winds]lands cj. Forman; waves, sands or strands cj. Rossetti. +_167 On]In cj. Rossetti. + +*** + + +EVENING: PONTE AL MARE, PISA + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824. +There is a draft amongst the Boscombe manuscripts.] + +1. +The sun is set; the swallows are asleep; +The bats are flitting fast in the gray air; +The slow soft toads out of damp corners creep, +And evening's breath, wandering here and there +Over the quivering surface of the stream, _5 +Wakes not one ripple from its summer dream. + +2. +There is no dew on the dry grass to-night, +Nor damp within the shadow of the trees; +The wind is intermitting, dry, and light; +And in the inconstant motion of the breeze _10 +The dust and straws are driven up and down, +And whirled about the pavement of the town. + +3. +Within the surface of the fleeting river +The wrinkled image of the city lay, +Immovably unquiet, and forever _15 +It trembles, but it never fades away; +Go to the... +You, being changed, will find it then as now. + +4. +The chasm in which the sun has sunk is shut +By darkest barriers of cinereous cloud, _20 +Like mountain over mountain huddled--but +Growing and moving upwards in a crowd, +And over it a space of watery blue, +Which the keen evening star is shining through.. + +NOTES: +_6 summer 1839, 2nd edition; silent 1824, 1839, 1st edition. +_20 cinereous Boscombe manuscript; enormous editions 1824, 1839. + +*** + + +THE BOAT ON THE SERCHIO. + +[Published in part (lines 1-61, 88-118) by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous +Poems", 1824; revised and enlarged by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical +Works of P. B. S.", 1870.] + +Our boat is asleep on Serchio's stream, +Its sails are folded like thoughts in a dream, +The helm sways idly, hither and thither; +Dominic, the boatman, has brought the mast, +And the oars, and the sails; but 'tis sleeping fast, _5 +Like a beast, unconscious of its tether. + +The stars burnt out in the pale blue air, +And the thin white moon lay withering there; +To tower, and cavern, and rift, and tree, +The owl and the bat fled drowsily. _10 +Day had kindled the dewy woods, +And the rocks above and the stream below, +And the vapours in their multitudes, +And the Apennine's shroud of summer snow, +And clothed with light of aery gold _15 +The mists in their eastern caves uprolled. + +Day had awakened all things that be, +The lark and the thrush and the swallow free, +And the milkmaid's song and the mower's scythe +And the matin-bell and the mountain bee: _20 +Fireflies were quenched on the dewy corn, +Glow-worms went out on the river's brim, +Like lamps which a student forgets to trim: +The beetle forgot to wind his horn, +The crickets were still in the meadow and hill: _25 +Like a flock of rooks at a farmer's gun +Night's dreams and terrors, every one, +Fled from the brains which are their prey +From the lamp's death to the morning ray. + +All rose to do the task He set to each, _30 +Who shaped us to His ends and not our own; +The million rose to learn, and one to teach +What none yet ever knew or can be known. +And many rose +Whose woe was such that fear became desire;-- _35 +Melchior and Lionel were not among those; +They from the throng of men had stepped aside, +And made their home under the green hill-side. +It was that hill, whose intervening brow +Screens Lucca from the Pisan's envious eye, _40 +Which the circumfluous plain waving below, +Like a wide lake of green fertility, +With streams and fields and marshes bare, +Divides from the far Apennines--which lie +Islanded in the immeasurable air. _45 + +'What think you, as she lies in her green cove, +Our little sleeping boat is dreaming of?' +'If morning dreams are true, why I should guess +That she was dreaming of our idleness, +And of the miles of watery way _50 +We should have led her by this time of day.'- + +'Never mind,' said Lionel, +'Give care to the winds, they can bear it well +About yon poplar-tops; and see +The white clouds are driving merrily, _55 +And the stars we miss this morn will light +More willingly our return to-night.-- +How it whistles, Dominic's long black hair! +List, my dear fellow; the breeze blows fair: +Hear how it sings into the air--' _60 + +--'Of us and of our lazy motions,' +Impatiently said Melchior, +'If I can guess a boat's emotions; +And how we ought, two hours before, +To have been the devil knows where.' _65 +And then, in such transalpine Tuscan +As would have killed a Della-Cruscan, + +... + +So, Lionel according to his art +Weaving his idle words, Melchior said: +'She dreams that we are not yet out of bed; _70 +We'll put a soul into her, and a heart +Which like a dove chased by a dove shall beat.' + +... + +'Ay, heave the ballast overboard, +And stow the eatables in the aft locker.' +'Would not this keg be best a little lowered?' _75 +'No, now all's right.' 'Those bottles of warm tea-- +(Give me some straw)--must be stowed tenderly; +Such as we used, in summer after six, +To cram in greatcoat pockets, and to mix +Hard eggs and radishes and rolls at Eton, _80 +And, couched on stolen hay in those green harbours +Farmers called gaps, and we schoolboys called arbours, +Would feast till eight.' + +... + +With a bottle in one hand, +As if his very soul were at a stand _85 +Lionel stood--when Melchior brought him steady:-- +'Sit at the helm--fasten this sheet--all ready!' + +The chain is loosed, the sails are spread, +The living breath is fresh behind, +As with dews and sunrise fed, _90 +Comes the laughing morning wind;-- +The sails are full, the boat makes head +Against the Serchio's torrent fierce, +Then flags with intermitting course, +And hangs upon the wave, and stems _95 +The tempest of the... +Which fervid from its mountain source +Shallow, smooth and strong doth come,-- +Swift as fire, tempestuously +It sweeps into the affrighted sea; _100 +In morning's smile its eddies coil, +Its billows sparkle, toss and boil, +Torturing all its quiet light +Into columns fierce and bright. + +The Serchio, twisting forth _105 +Between the marble barriers which it clove +At Ripafratta, leads through the dread chasm +The wave that died the death which lovers love, +Living in what it sought; as if this spasm +Had not yet passed, the toppling mountains cling, _110 +But the clear stream in full enthusiasm +Pours itself on the plain, then wandering +Down one clear path of effluence crystalline +Sends its superfluous waves, that they may fling +At Arno's feet tribute of corn and wine; +Then, through the pestilential deserts wild +Of tangled marsh and woods of stunted pine, +It rushes to the Ocean. + +NOTES: +_58-_61 List, my dear fellow, the breeze blows fair; +How it scatters Dominic's long black hair! +Singing of us, and our lazy motions, +If I can guess a boat's emotions.'--editions 1824, 1839. +_61-_67 Rossetti places these lines conjecturally between lines 51 and 52. +_61-_65 'are evidently an alternative version of 48-51' (A.C. Bradley). +_95, _96 and stems The tempest of the wanting in editions 1824, 1839. +_112 then Boscombe manuscript; until editions 1824, 1839 +_114 superfluous Boscombe manuscript; clear editions 1824, 1839. +_117 pine Boscombe manuscript; fir editions 1824, 1839. + +*** + + +MUSIC. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +1. +I pant for the music which is divine, +My heart in its thirst is a dying flower; +Pour forth the sound like enchanted wine, +Loosen the notes in a silver shower; +Like a herbless plain, for the gentle rain, _5 +I gasp, I faint, till they wake again. + +2. +Let me drink of the spirit of that sweet sound, +More, oh more,--I am thirsting yet; +It loosens the serpent which care has bound +Upon my heart to stifle it; _10 +The dissolving strain, through every vein, +Passes into my heart and brain. + +3. +As the scent of a violet withered up, +Which grew by the brink of a silver lake, +When the hot noon has drained its dewy cup, _15 +And mist there was none its thirst to slake-- +And the violet lay dead while the odour flew +On the wings of the wind o'er the waters blue-- + +4. +As one who drinks from a charmed cup +Of foaming, and sparkling, and murmuring wine, _20 +Whom, a mighty Enchantress filling up, +Invites to love with her kiss divine... + +NOTES: +_16 mist 1824; tank 1839, 2nd edition. + +*** + + +SONNET TO BYRON. + +[Published by Medwin, "The Shelley Papers", 1832 (lines 1-7), and "Life +of Shelley", 1847 (lines 1-9, 12-14). Revised and completed from the +Boscombe manuscript by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", +1870.] + +[I am afraid these verses will not please you, but] +If I esteemed you less, Envy would kill +Pleasure, and leave to Wonder and Despair +The ministration of the thoughts that fill +The mind which, like a worm whose life may share +A portion of the unapproachable, _5 +Marks your creations rise as fast and fair +As perfect worlds at the Creator's will. + +But such is my regard that nor your power +To soar above the heights where others [climb], +Nor fame, that shadow of the unborn hour _10 +Cast from the envious future on the time, +Move one regret for his unhonoured name +Who dares these words:--the worm beneath the sod +May lift itself in homage of the God. + +NOTES: +_1 you edition 1870; him 1832; thee 1847. +_4 So edition 1870; My soul which as a worm may haply share 1832; + My soul which even as a worm may share 1847. +_6 your edition 1870; his 1832; thy 1847. +_8, _9 So edition 1870 wanting 1832 - + But not the blessings of thy happier lot, + Nor thy well-won prosperity, and fame 1847. +_10, _11 So edition 1870; wanting 1832, 1847. +_12-_14 So 1847, edition 1870; wanting 1832. + + +*** + +FRAGMENT ON KEATS. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition--ED.] + +ON KEATS, WHO DESIRED THAT ON HIS TOMB SHOULD BE INSCRIBED-- + +'Here lieth One whose name was writ on water. +But, ere the breath that could erase it blew, +Death, in remorse for that fell slaughter, +Death, the immortalizing winter, flew +Athwart the stream,--and time's printless torrent grew _5 +A scroll of crystal, blazoning the name +Of Adonais! + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'METHOUGHT I WAS A BILLOW IN THE CROWD'. + +[Published by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870.] + +Methought I was a billow in the crowd +Of common men, that stream without a shore, +That ocean which at once is deaf and loud; +That I, a man, stood amid many more +By a wayside..., which the aspect bore _5 +Of some imperial metropolis, +Where mighty shapes--pyramid, dome, and tower-- +Gleamed like a pile of crags-- + +*** + + +TO-MORROW. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +Where art thou, beloved To-morrow? +When young and old, and strong and weak, +Rich and poor, through joy and sorrow, +Thy sweet smiles we ever seek,-- +In thy place--ah! well-a-day! _5 +We find the thing we fled--To-day. + +*** + + +STANZA. + +[Published by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870. +Connected by Dowden with the preceding.] + +If I walk in Autumn's even +While the dead leaves pass, +If I look on Spring's soft heaven,-- +Something is not there which was +Winter's wondrous frost and snow, _5 +Summer's clouds, where are they now? + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: A WANDERER. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.] + +He wanders, like a day-appearing dream, +Through the dim wildernesses of the mind; +Through desert woods and tracts, which seem +Like ocean, homeless, boundless, unconfined. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: LIFE ROUNDED WITH SLEEP. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition.] + +The babe is at peace within the womb; +The corpse is at rest within the tomb: +We begin in what we end. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'I FAINT, I PERISH WITH MY LOVE!'. + +[Published by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870.] + +I faint, I perish with my love! I grow +Frail as a cloud whose [splendours] pale +Under the evening's ever-changing glow: +I die like mist upon the gale, +And like a wave under the calm I fail. _5 + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: THE LADY OF THE SOUTH. + +[Published by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870.] + +Faint with love, the Lady of the South +Lay in the paradise of Lebanon +Under a heaven of cedar boughs: the drouth +Of love was on her lips; the light was gone +Out of her eyes-- _5 + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: ZEPHYRUS THE AWAKENER. + +[Published by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870.] + +Come, thou awakener of the spirit's ocean, +Zephyr, whom to thy cloud or cave +No thought can trace! speed with thy gentle motion! + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: RAIN. + +[Published by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870.] + +The gentleness of rain was in the wind. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'WHEN SOFT WINDS AND SUNNY SKIES'. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.] + +When soft winds and sunny skies +With the green earth harmonize, +And the young and dewy dawn, +Bold as an unhunted fawn, +Up the windless heaven is gone,-- _5 +Laugh--for ambushed in the day,-- +Clouds and whirlwinds watch their prey. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'AND THAT I WALK THUS PROUDLY CROWNED'. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.] + +And that I walk thus proudly crowned withal +Is that 'tis my distinction; if I fall, +I shall not weep out of the vital day, +To-morrow dust, nor wear a dull decay. + +NOTE: +_2 'Tis that is or In that is cj. A.C. Bradley. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'THE RUDE WIND IS SINGING'. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.] + +The rude wind is singing +The dirge of the music dead; +The cold worms are clinging +Where kisses were lately fed. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'GREAT SPIRIT'. + +[Published by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870.] + +Great Spirit whom the sea of boundless thought +Nurtures within its unimagined caves, +In which thou sittest sole, as in my mind, +Giving a voice to its mysterious waves-- + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'O THOU IMMORTAL DEITY'. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition.] + +O thou immortal deity +Whose throne is in the depth of human thought, +I do adjure thy power and thee +By all that man may be, by all that he is not, +By all that he has been and yet must be! _5 + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: THE FALSE LAUREL AND THE TRUE. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.] + +'What art thou, Presumptuous, who profanest +The wreath to mighty poets only due, +Even whilst like a forgotten moon thou wanest? +Touch not those leaves which for the eternal few +Who wander o'er the Paradise of fame, _5 +In sacred dedication ever grew: +One of the crowd thou art without a name.' +'Ah, friend, 'tis the false laurel that I wear; +Bright though it seem, it is not the same +As that which bound Milton's immortal hair; _10 +Its dew is poison; and the hopes that quicken +Under its chilling shade, though seeming fair, +Are flowers which die almost before they sicken.' + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: MAY THE LIMNER. + +[This and the three following Fragments were edited from manuscript +Shelley D1 at the Bodleian Library and published by Mr. C.D. Locock, +"Examination", etc., Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1903. They are printed +here as belonging probably to the year 1821.] + +When May is painting with her colours gay +The landscape sketched by April her sweet twin... + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: BEAUTY'S HALO. + +[Published by Mr. C.D. Locock, "Examination", etc, 1903.] + +Thy beauty hangs around thee like +Splendour around the moon-- +Thy voice, as silver bells that strike +Upon + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'THE DEATH KNELL IS RINGING'. + +('This reads like a study for "Autumn, A Dirge"' (Locock). Might it not +be part of a projected Fit v. of "The Fugitives"?--ED.) + +[Published by Mr. C.D. Locock, "Examination", etc., 1903.] + +The death knell is ringing +The raven is singing +The earth worm is creeping +The mourners are weeping +Ding dong, bell-- _5 + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'I STOOD UPON A HEAVEN-CLEAVING TURRET'. + +I stood upon a heaven-cleaving turret +Which overlooked a wide Metropolis-- +And in the temple of my heart my Spirit +Lay prostrate, and with parted lips did kiss +The dust of Desolations [altar] hearth-- _5 +And with a voice too faint to falter +It shook that trembling fane with its weak prayer +'Twas noon,--the sleeping skies were blue +The city + +*** + + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1821, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +My task becomes inexpressibly painful as the year draws near that which +sealed our earthly fate, and each poem, and each event it records, has +a real or mysterious connection with the fatal catastrophe. I feel that +I am incapable of putting on paper the history of those times. The +heart of the man, abhorred of the poet, who could + + 'peep and botanize + Upon his mother's grave,' + +does not appear to me more inexplicably framed than that of one who can +dissect and probe past woes, and repeat to the public ear the groans +drawn from them in the throes of their agony. + +The year 1821 was spent in Pisa, or at the Baths of San Giuliano. We +were not, as our wont had been, alone; friends had gathered round us. +Nearly all are dead, and, when Memory recurs to the past, she wanders +among tombs. The genius, with all his blighting errors and mighty +powers; the companion of Shelley's ocean-wanderings, and the sharer of +his fate, than whom no man ever existed more gentle, generous, and +fearless; and others, who found in Shelley's society, and in his great +knowledge and warm sympathy, delight, instruction, and solace; have +joined him beyond the grave. A few survive who have felt life a desert +since he left it. What misfortune can equal death? Change can convert +every other into a blessing, or heal its sting--death alone has no +cure. It shakes the foundations of the earth on which we tread; it +destroys its beauty; it casts down our shelter; it exposes us bare to +desolation. When those we love have passed into eternity, 'life is the +desert and the solitude' in which we are forced to linger--but never +find comfort more. + +There is much in the "Adonais" which seems now more applicable to +Shelley himself than to the young and gifted poet whom he mourned. The +poetic view he takes of death, and the lofty scorn he displays towards +his calumniators, are as a prophecy on his own destiny when received +among immortal names, and the poisonous breath of critics has vanished +into emptiness before the fame he inherits. + +Shelley's favourite taste was boating; when living near the Thames or +by the Lake of Geneva, much of his life was spent on the water. On the +shore of every lake or stream or sea near which he dwelt, he had a boat +moored. He had latterly enjoyed this pleasure again. There are no +pleasure-boats on the Arno; and the shallowness of its waters (except +in winter-time, when the stream is too turbid and impetuous for +boating) rendered it difficult to get any skiff light enough to float. +Shelley, however, overcame the difficulty; he, together with a friend, +contrived a boat such as the huntsmen carry about with them in the +Maremma, to cross the sluggish but deep streams that intersect the +forests,--a boat of laths and pitched canvas. It held three persons; +and he was often seen on the Arno in it, to the horror of the Italians, +who remonstrated on the danger, and could not understand how anyone +could take pleasure in an exercise that risked life. 'Ma va per la +vita!' they exclaimed. I little thought how true their words would +prove. He once ventured, with a friend, on the glassy sea of a calm +day, down the Arno and round the coast to Leghorn, which, by keeping +close in shore, was very practicable. They returned to Pisa by the +canal, when, missing the direct cut, they got entangled among weeds, +and the boat upset; a wetting was all the harm done, except that the +intense cold of his drenched clothes made Shelley faint. Once I went +down with him to the mouth of the Arno, where the stream, then high and +swift, met the tideless sea, and disturbed its sluggish waters. It was +a waste and dreary scene; the desert sand stretched into a point +surrounded by waves that broke idly though perpetually around; it was a +scene very similar to Lido, of which he had said-- + + 'I love all waste + And solitary places; where we taste + The pleasure of believing what we see + Is boundless, as we wish our souls to be: + And such was this wide ocean, and this shore + More barren than its billows.' + +Our little boat was of greater use, unaccompanied by any danger, when +we removed to the Baths. Some friends lived at the village of Pugnano, +four miles off, and we went to and fro to see them, in our boat, by the +canal; which, fed by the Serchio, was, though an artificial, a full and +picturesque stream, making its way under verdant banks, sheltered by +trees that dipped their boughs into the murmuring waters. By day, +multitudes of Ephemera darted to and fro on the surface; at night, the +fireflies came out among the shrubs on the banks; the cicale at +noon-day kept up their hum; the aziola cooed in the quiet evening. It +was a pleasant summer, bright in all but Shelley's health and +inconstant spirits; yet he enjoyed himself greatly, and became more and +more attached to the part of the country were chance appeared to cast +us. Sometimes he projected taking a farm situated on the height of one +of the near hills, surrounded by chestnut and pine woods, and +overlooking a wide extent of country: or settling still farther in the +maritime Apennines, at Massa. Several of his slighter and unfinished +poems were inspired by these scenes, and by the companions around us. +It is the nature of that poetry, however, which overflows from the soul +oftener to express sorrow and regret than joy; for it is when oppressed +by the weight of life, and away from those he loves, that the poet has +recourse to the solace of expression in verse. + +Still, Shelley's passion was the ocean; and he wished that our summers, +instead of being passed among the hills near Pisa, should be spent on +the shores of the sea. It was very difficult to find a spot. We shrank +from Naples from a fear that the heats would disagree with Percy: +Leghorn had lost its only attraction, since our friends who had resided +there were returned to England; and, Monte Nero being the resort of +many English, we did not wish to find ourselves in the midst of a +colony of chance travellers. No one then thought it possible to reside +at Via Reggio, which latterly has become a summer resort. The low lands +and bad air of Maremma stretch the whole length of the western shores +of the Mediterranean, till broken by the rocks and hills of Spezia. It +was a vague idea, but Shelley suggested an excursion to Spezia, to see +whether it would be feasible to spend a summer there. The beauty of the +bay enchanted him. We saw no house to suit us; but the notion took +root, and many circumstances, enchained as by fatality, occurred to +urge him to execute it. + +He looked forward this autumn with great pleasure to the prospect of a +visit from Leigh Hunt. When Shelley visited Lord Byron at Ravenna, the +latter had suggested his coming out, together with the plan of a +periodical work in which they should all join. Shelley saw a prospect +of good for the fortunes of his friend, and pleasure in his society; +and instantly exerted himself to have the plan executed. He did not +intend himself joining in the work: partly from pride, not wishing to +have the air of acquiring readers for his poetry by associating it with +the compositions of more popular writers; and also because he might +feel shackled in the free expression of his opinions, if any friends +were to be compromised. By those opinions, carried even to their +outermost extent, he wished to live and die, as being in his conviction +not only true, but such as alone would conduce to the moral improvement +and happiness of mankind. The sale of the work might meanwhile, either +really or supposedly, be injured by the free expression of his +thoughts; and this evil he resolved to avoid. + +*** + + +POEMS WRITTEN IN 1822. + + +THE ZUCCA. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824, and dated +'January, 1822.' There is a copy amongst the Boscombe manuscripts.] + +1. +Summer was dead and Autumn was expiring, +And infant Winter laughed upon the land +All cloudlessly and cold;--when I, desiring +More in this world than any understand, +Wept o'er the beauty, which, like sea retiring, _5 +Had left the earth bare as the wave-worn sand +Of my lorn heart, and o'er the grass and flowers +Pale for the falsehood of the flattering Hours. + +2. +Summer was dead, but I yet lived to weep +The instability of all but weeping; _10 +And on the Earth lulled in her winter sleep +I woke, and envied her as she was sleeping. +Too happy Earth! over thy face shall creep +The wakening vernal airs, until thou, leaping +From unremembered dreams, shalt ... see _15 +No death divide thy immortality. + +3. +I loved--oh, no, I mean not one of ye, +Or any earthly one, though ye are dear +As human heart to human heart may be;-- +I loved, I know not what--but this low sphere _20 +And all that it contains, contains not thee, +Thou, whom, seen nowhere, I feel everywhere. +From Heaven and Earth, and all that in them are, +Veiled art thou, like a ... star. + +4. +By Heaven and Earth, from all whose shapes thou flowest, _25 +Neither to be contained, delayed, nor hidden; +Making divine the loftiest and the lowest, +When for a moment thou art not forbidden +To live within the life which thou bestowest; +And leaving noblest things vacant and chidden, _30 +Cold as a corpse after the spirit's flight +Blank as the sun after the birth of night. + +5. +In winds, and trees, and streams, and all things common, +In music and the sweet unconscious tone +Of animals, and voices which are human, _35 +Meant to express some feelings of their own; +In the soft motions and rare smile of woman, +In flowers and leaves, and in the grass fresh-shown, +Or dying in the autumn, I the most +Adore thee present or lament thee lost. _40 + +6. +And thus I went lamenting, when I saw +A plant upon the river's margin lie +Like one who loved beyond his nature's law, +And in despair had cast him down to die; +Its leaves, which had outlived the frost, the thaw _45 +Had blighted; like a heart which hatred's eye +Can blast not, but which pity kills; the dew +Lay on its spotted leaves like tears too true. + +7. +The Heavens had wept upon it, but the Earth +Had crushed it on her maternal breast _50 + +... + +8. +I bore it to my chamber, and I planted +It in a vase full of the lightest mould; +The winter beams which out of Heaven slanted +Fell through the window-panes, disrobed of cold, +Upon its leaves and flowers; the stars which panted _55 +In evening for the Day, whose car has rolled +Over the horizon's wave, with looks of light +Smiled on it from the threshold of the night. + +9. +The mitigated influences of air +And light revived the plant, and from it grew _60 +Strong leaves and tendrils, and its flowers fair, +Full as a cup with the vine's burning dew, +O'erflowed with golden colours; an atmosphere +Of vital warmth enfolded it anew, +And every impulse sent to every part +The unbeheld pulsations of its heart. _65 + +10. +Well might the plant grow beautiful and strong, +Even if the air and sun had smiled not on it; +For one wept o'er it all the winter long +Tears pure as Heaven's rain, which fell upon it _70 +Hour after hour; for sounds of softest song +Mixed with the stringed melodies that won it +To leave the gentle lips on which it slept, +Had loosed the heart of him who sat and wept. + +11. +Had loosed his heart, and shook the leaves and flowers _75 +On which he wept, the while the savage storm +Waked by the darkest of December's hours +Was raving round the chamber hushed and warm; +The birds were shivering in their leafless bowers, +The fish were frozen in the pools, the form _80 +Of every summer plant was dead +Whilst this.... + +... + +NOTES: +_7 lorn Boscombe manuscript; poor edition 1824. +_23 So Boscombe manuscript; Dim object of soul's idolatry edition 1824. +_24 star Boscombe manuscript; wanting edition 1824. +_38 grass fresh Boscombe manuscript; fresh grass edition 1824. +_46 like Boscombe manuscript; as edition 1824. +_68 air and sun Boscombe manuscript; sun and air edition 1824. + +*** + + +THE MAGNETIC LADY TO HER PATIENT. + +[Published by Medwin, "The Athenaeum", August 11, 1832. +There is a copy amongst the Trelawny manuscripts.] + +1. +'Sleep, sleep on! forget thy pain; +My hand is on thy brow, +My spirit on thy brain; +My pity on thy heart, poor friend; +And from my fingers flow _5 +The powers of life, and like a sign, +Seal thee from thine hour of woe; +And brood on thee, but may not blend +With thine. + +2. +'Sleep, sleep on! I love thee not; _10 +But when I think that he +Who made and makes my lot +As full of flowers as thine of weeds, +Might have been lost like thee; +And that a hand which was not mine _15 +Might then have charmed his agony +As I another's--my heart bleeds +For thine. + +3. +'Sleep, sleep, and with the slumber of +The dead and the unborn _20 +Forget thy life and love; +Forget that thou must wake forever; +Forget the world's dull scorn; +Forget lost health, and the divine +Feelings which died in youth's brief morn; _25 +And forget me, for I can never +Be thine. + +4. +'Like a cloud big with a May shower, +My soul weeps healing rain +On thee, thou withered flower! _30 +It breathes mute music on thy sleep +Its odour calms thy brain! +Its light within thy gloomy breast +Spreads like a second youth again. +By mine thy being is to its deep _35 +Possessed. + +5. +'The spell is done. How feel you now?' +'Better--Quite well,' replied +The sleeper.--'What would do _39 +You good when suffering and awake? +What cure your head and side?--' +'What would cure, that would kill me, Jane: +And as I must on earth abide +Awhile, yet tempt me not to break +My chain.' _45 + +NOTES; +_1, _10 Sleep Trelawny manuscript, 1839, 2nd edition; + Sleep on 1832, 1839, 1st edition. +_16 charmed Trelawny manuscript; + chased 1832, editions 1839. +_21 love]woe 1832. +_42 so Trelawny manuscript + 'Twould kill me what would cure my pain 1832, editions 1839. +_44 Awhile yet, cj. A.C. Bradley. + +*** + + +LINES: 'WHEN THE LAMP IS SHATTERED'. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824. +There is a copy amongst the Trelawny manuscripts.] + +1. +When the lamp is shattered +The light in the dust lies dead-- +When the cloud is scattered +The rainbow's glory is shed. +When the lute is broken, _5 +Sweet tones are remembered not; +When the lips have spoken, +Loved accents are soon forgot. + +2. +As music and splendour +Survive not the lamp and the lute, _10 +The heart's echoes render +No song when the spirit is mute:-- +No song but sad dirges, +Like the wind through a ruined cell, +Or the mournful surges _15 +That ring the dead seaman's knell. + +3. +When hearts have once mingled +Love first leaves the well-built nest; +The weak one is singled +To endure what it once possessed. _20 +O Love! who bewailest +The frailty of all things here, +Why choose you the frailest +For your cradle, your home, and your bier? + +4. +Its passions will rock thee _25 +As the storms rock the ravens on high; +Bright reason will mock thee, +Like the sun from a wintry sky. +From thy nest every rafter +Will rot, and thine eagle home _30 +Leave thee naked to laughter, +When leaves fall and cold winds come. + +NOTES: +_6 tones edition 1824; notes Trelawny manuscript. +_14 through edition 1824; in Trelawny manuscript. +_16 dead edition 1824; lost Trelawny manuscript. +_23 choose edition 1824; chose Trelawny manuscript. +_25-_32 wanting Trelawny manuscript. + +*** + + +TO JANE: THE INVITATION. + +[This and the following poem were published together in their original +form as one piece under the title, "The Pine Forest of the Cascine near +Pisa", by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824; reprinted in the same +shape, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition; republished separately in +their present form, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition. There is a +copy amongst the Trelawny manuscripts.] + +Best and brightest, come away! +Fairer far than this fair Day, +Which, like thee to those in sorrow, +Comes to bid a sweet good-morrow +To the rough Year just awake _5 +In its cradle on the brake. +The brightest hour of unborn Spring, +Through the winter wandering, +Found, it seems, the halcyon Morn +To hoar February born, _10 +Bending from Heaven, in azure mirth, +It kissed the forehead of the Earth, +And smiled upon the silent sea, +And bade the frozen streams be free, +And waked to music all their fountains, _15 +And breathed upon the frozen mountains, +And like a prophetess of May +Strewed flowers upon the barren way, +Making the wintry world appear +Like one on whom thou smilest, dear. _20 + +Away, away, from men and towns, +To the wild wood and the downs-- +To the silent wilderness +Where the soul need not repress +Its music lest it should not find _25 +An echo in another's mind, +While the touch of Nature's art +Harmonizes heart to heart. +I leave this notice on my door +For each accustomed visitor:-- _30 +'I am gone into the fields +To take what this sweet hour yields;-- +Reflection, you may come to-morrow, +Sit by the fireside with Sorrow.-- +You with the unpaid bill, Despair,-- +You, tiresome verse-reciter, Care,-- _35 +I will pay you in the grave,-- +Death will listen to your stave. +Expectation too, be off! +To-day is for itself enough; _40 +Hope, in pity mock not Woe +With smiles, nor follow where I go; +Long having lived on thy sweet food, +At length I find one moment's good +After long pain--with all your love, _45 +This you never told me of.' + +Radiant Sister of the Day, +Awake! arise! and come away! +To the wild woods and the plains, +And the pools where winter rains _50. +Image all their roof of leaves, +Where the pine its garland weaves +Of sapless green and ivy dun +Round stems that never kiss the sun; +Where the lawns and pastures be, _55 +And the sandhills of the sea;-- +Where the melting hoar-frost wets +The daisy-star that never sets, +And wind-flowers, and violets, +Which yet join not scent to hue, _60 +Crown the pale year weak and new; +When the night is left behind +In the deep east, dun and blind, +And the blue noon is over us, +And the multitudinous _65 +Billows murmur at our feet, +Where the earth and ocean meet, +And all things seem only one +In the universal sun. + +NOTES: +_34 with Trelawny manuscript; of 1839, 2nd edition. +_44 moment's Trelawny manuscript; moment 1839, 2nd edition. +_50 And Trelawny manuscript; To 1839, 2nd edition. +_53 dun Trelawny manuscript; dim 1839, 2nd edition. + +*** + + +TO JANE: THE RECOLLECTION. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition. +See the Editor's prefatory note to the preceding.] + +1. +Now the last day of many days, +All beautiful and bright as thou, +The loveliest and the last, is dead, +Rise, Memory, and write its praise! +Up,--to thy wonted work! come, trace _5 +The epitaph of glory fled,-- +For now the Earth has changed its face, +A frown is on the Heaven's brow. + +2. +We wandered to the Pine Forest +That skirts the Ocean's foam, _10 +The lightest wind was in its nest, +The tempest in its home. +The whispering waves were half asleep, +The clouds were gone to play, +And on the bosom of the deep _15 +The smile of Heaven lay; +It seemed as if the hour were one +Sent from beyond the skies, +Which scattered from above the sun +A light of Paradise. _20 + +3. +We paused amid the pines that stood +The giants of the waste, +Tortured by storms to shapes as rude +As serpents interlaced; +And, soothed by every azure breath, _25 +That under Heaven is blown, +To harmonies and hues beneath, +As tender as its own, +Now all the tree-tops lay asleep, +Like green waves on the sea, _30 +As still as in the silent deep +The ocean woods may be. + +4. +How calm it was!--the silence there +By such a chain was bound +That even the busy woodpecker _35 +Made stiller by her sound +The inviolable quietness; +The breath of peace we drew +With its soft motion made not less +The calm that round us grew. _40 +There seemed from the remotest seat +Of the white mountain waste, +To the soft flower beneath our feet, +A magic circle traced,-- +A spirit interfused around _45 +A thrilling, silent life,-- +To momentary peace it bound +Our mortal nature's strife; +And still I felt the centre of +The magic circle there _50 +Was one fair form that filled with love +The lifeless atmosphere. + +5. +We paused beside the pools that lie +Under the forest bough,-- +Each seemed as 'twere a little sky _55 +Gulfed in a world below; +A firmament of purple light +Which in the dark earth lay, +More boundless than the depth of night, +And purer than the day-- _60 +In which the lovely forests grew, +As in the upper air, +More perfect both in shape and hue +Than any spreading there. +There lay the glade and neighbouring lawn, _65 +And through the dark green wood +The white sun twinkling like the dawn +Out of a speckled cloud. +Sweet views which in our world above +Can never well be seen, _70 +Were imaged by the water's love +Of that fair forest green. +And all was interfused beneath +With an Elysian glow, +An atmosphere without a breath, _75 +A softer day below. +Like one beloved the scene had lent +To the dark water's breast, +Its every leaf and lineament +With more than truth expressed; _80 +Until an envious wind crept by, +Like an unwelcome thought, +Which from the mind's too faithful eye +Blots one dear image out. +Though thou art ever fair and kind, _85 +The forests ever green, +Less oft is peace in Shelley's mind, +Than calm in waters, seen. + +NOTES: +_6 fled edition. 1824; dead Trelawny manuscript, 1839, 2nd edition. +_10 Ocean's]Ocean 1839, 2nd edition. +_24 Interlaced, 1839; interlaced; cj. A.C. Bradley. +_28 own; 1839 own, cj. A.C. Bradley. +_42 white Trelawny manuscript; wide 1839, 2nd edition +_87 Shelley's Trelawny manuscript; S--'s 1839, 2nd edition.] + +*** + + +THE PINE FOREST OF THE CASCINE NEAR PISA. + +[This, the first draft of "To Jane: The Invitation, The Recollection", +was published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824, and reprinted, +"Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition. See Editor's Prefatory Note to +"The Invitation", above.] + +Dearest, best and brightest, +Come away, +To the woods and to the fields! +Dearer than this fairest day +Which, like thee to those in sorrow, _5 +Comes to bid a sweet good-morrow +To the rough Year just awake +In its cradle in the brake. +The eldest of the Hours of Spring, +Into the Winter wandering, _10 +Looks upon the leafless wood, +And the banks all bare and rude; +Found, it seems, this halcyon Morn +In February's bosom born, +Bending from Heaven, in azure mirth, _15 +Kissed the cold forehead of the Earth, +And smiled upon the silent sea, +And bade the frozen streams be free; +And waked to music all the fountains, +And breathed upon the rigid mountains, _20 +And made the wintry world appear +Like one on whom thou smilest, Dear. + +Radiant Sister of the Day, +Awake! arise! and come away! +To the wild woods and the plains, _25 +To the pools where winter rains +Image all the roof of leaves, +Where the pine its garland weaves +Sapless, gray, and ivy dun +Round stems that never kiss the sun-- _30 +To the sandhills of the sea, +Where the earliest violets be. + +Now the last day of many days, +All beautiful and bright as thou, +The loveliest and the last, is dead, _35 +Rise, Memory, and write its praise! +And do thy wonted work and trace +The epitaph of glory fled; +For now the Earth has changed its face, +A frown is on the Heaven's brow. _40 + +We wandered to the Pine Forest +That skirts the Ocean's foam, +The lightest wind was in its nest, +The tempest in its home. + +The whispering waves were half asleep, _45 +The clouds were gone to play, +And on the woods, and on the deep +The smile of Heaven lay. + +It seemed as if the day were one +Sent from beyond the skies, _50 +Which shed to earth above the sun +A light of Paradise. + +We paused amid the pines that stood, +The giants of the waste, +Tortured by storms to shapes as rude _55 +With stems like serpents interlaced. + +How calm it was--the silence there +By such a chain was bound, +That even the busy woodpecker +Made stiller by her sound _60 + +The inviolable quietness; +The breath of peace we drew +With its soft motion made not less +The calm that round us grew. + +It seemed that from the remotest seat _65 +Of the white mountain's waste +To the bright flower beneath our feet, +A magic circle traced;-- + +A spirit interfused around, +A thinking, silent life; _70 +To momentary peace it bound +Our mortal nature's strife;-- + +And still, it seemed, the centre of +The magic circle there, +Was one whose being filled with love _75 +The breathless atmosphere. + +Were not the crocuses that grew +Under that ilex-tree +As beautiful in scent and hue +As ever fed the bee? _80 + +We stood beneath the pools that lie +Under the forest bough, +And each seemed like a sky +Gulfed in a world below; + +A purple firmament of light _85 +Which in the dark earth lay, +More boundless than the depth of night, +And clearer than the day-- + +In which the massy forests grew +As in the upper air, _90 +More perfect both in shape and hue +Than any waving there. + +Like one beloved the scene had lent +To the dark water's breast +Its every leaf and lineament _95 +With that clear truth expressed; + +There lay far glades and neighbouring lawn, +And through the dark green crowd +The white sun twinkling like the dawn +Under a speckled cloud. _100 + +Sweet views, which in our world above +Can never well be seen, +Were imaged by the water's love +Of that fair forest green. + +And all was interfused beneath _105 +With an Elysian air, +An atmosphere without a breath, +A silence sleeping there. + +Until a wandering wind crept by, +Like an unwelcome thought, _110 +Which from my mind's too faithful eye +Blots thy bright image out. + +For thou art good and dear and kind, +The forest ever green, +But less of peace in S--'s mind, +Than calm in waters, seen. _116. + +*** + + +WITH A GUITAR, TO JANE. + +[Published by Medwin, "The Athenaeum", October 20, 1832; "Frazer's +Magazine", January 1833. There is a copy amongst the Trelawny +manuscripts.] + +Ariel to Miranda:--Take +This slave of Music, for the sake +Of him who is the slave of thee, +And teach it all the harmony +In which thou canst, and only thou, _5 +Make the delighted spirit glow, +Till joy denies itself again, +And, too intense, is turned to pain; +For by permission and command +Of thine own Prince Ferdinand, _10 +Poor Ariel sends this silent token +Of more than ever can be spoken; +Your guardian spirit, Ariel, who, +From life to life, must still pursue +Your happiness;--for thus alone _15 +Can Ariel ever find his own. +From Prospero's enchanted cell, +As the mighty verses tell, +To the throne of Naples, he +Lit you o'er the trackless sea, _20 +Flitting on, your prow before, +Like a living meteor. +When you die, the silent Moon, +In her interlunar swoon, +Is not sadder in her cell +Than deserted Ariel. +When you live again on earth, +Like an unseen star of birth, +Ariel guides you o'er the sea +Of life from your nativity. _30 +Many changes have been run +Since Ferdinand and you begun +Your course of love, and Ariel still +Has tracked your steps, and served your will; +Now, in humbler, happier lot, _35 +This is all remembered not; +And now, alas! the poor sprite is +Imprisoned, for some fault of his, +In a body like a grave;-- +From you he only dares to crave, _40 +For his service and his sorrow, +A smile today, a song tomorrow. + +The artist who this idol wrought, +To echo all harmonious thought, +Felled a tree, while on the steep _45 +The woods were in their winter sleep, +Rocked in that repose divine +On the wind-swept Apennine; +And dreaming, some of Autumn past, +And some of Spring approaching fast, _50 +And some of April buds and showers, +And some of songs in July bowers, +And all of love; and so this tree,-- +O that such our death may be!-- +Died in sleep, and felt no pain, _55 +To live in happier form again: +From which, beneath Heaven's fairest star, +The artist wrought this loved Guitar, +And taught it justly to reply, +To all who question skilfully, _60 +In language gentle as thine own; +Whispering in enamoured tone +Sweet oracles of woods and dells, +And summer winds in sylvan cells; +For it had learned all harmonies _65 +Of the plains and of the skies, +Of the forests and the mountains, +And the many-voiced fountains; +The clearest echoes of the hills, +The softest notes of falling rills, _70 +The melodies of birds and bees, +The murmuring of summer seas, +And pattering rain, and breathing dew, +And airs of evening; and it knew +That seldom-heard mysterious sound, _75 +Which, driven on its diurnal round, +As it floats through boundless day, +Our world enkindles on its way.-- +All this it knows, but will not tell +To those who cannot question well _80 +The Spirit that inhabits it; +It talks according to the wit +Of its companions; and no more +Is heard than has been felt before, +By those who tempt it to betray _85 +These secrets of an elder day: +But, sweetly as its answers will +Flatter hands of perfect skill, +It keeps its highest, holiest tone +For our beloved Jane alone. _90 + +NOTES: +_12 Of more than ever]Of love that never 1833. +_46 woods Trelawny manuscript, 1839, 2nd edition; + winds 1832, 1833, 1839, 1st edition. +_58 this Trelawny manuscript, 1839, 2nd edition; + that 1832, 1833, 1839, 1st edition. +_61 thine own Trelawny manuscript, 1839, 2nd edition; + its own 1832, 1833, 1839, 1st edition. +_76 on Trelawny manuscript, 1839, 2nd edition; + in 1832, 1833, 1839, 1st edition. +_90 Jane Trelawny manuscript; friend 1832, 1833, editions 1839. + +*** + + +TO JANE: 'THE KEEN STARS WERE TWINKLING'. + +[Published in part (lines 7-24) by Medwin (under the title, "An Ariette +for Music. To a Lady singing to her Accompaniment on the Guitar"), "The +Athenaeum", November 17, 1832; reprinted by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical +Works", 1839, 1st edition. Republished in full (under the title, To +--.), "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition. The Trelawny manuscript is +headed "To Jane". Mr. C.W. Frederickson of Brooklyn possesses a +transcript in an unknown hand.] + +1. +The keen stars were twinkling, +And the fair moon was rising among them, +Dear Jane! +The guitar was tinkling, +But the notes were not sweet till you sung them _5 +Again. + +2. +As the moon's soft splendour +O'er the faint cold starlight of Heaven +Is thrown, +So your voice most tender _10 +To the strings without soul had then given +Its own. + +3. +The stars will awaken, +Though the moon sleep a full hour later, +To-night; _15 +No leaf will be shaken +Whilst the dews of your melody scatter +Delight. + +4. +Though the sound overpowers, +Sing again, with your dear voice revealing _20 +A tone +Of some world far from ours, +Where music and moonlight and feeling +Are one. + +NOTES: +_3 Dear *** 1839, 2nd edition. +_7 soft]pale Fred. manuscript. +_10 your 1839, 2nd edition.; + thy 1832, 1839, 1st edition, Fred. manuscript. +_11 had then 1839, 2nd edition; has 1832, 1839, 1st edition; + hath Fred. manuscript. +_12 Its]Thine Fred. manuscript. +_17 your 1839, 2nd edition; + thy 1832, 1839, 1st edition, Fred. manuscript. +_19 sound]song Fred. manuscript. +_20 your dear 1839, 2nd edition; thy sweet 1832, 1839, 1st edition; + thy soft Fred. manuscript. + +*** + + +A DIRGE. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +Rough wind, that moanest loud +Grief too sad for song; +Wild wind, when sullen cloud +Knells all the night long; +Sad storm whose tears are vain, _5 +Bare woods, whose branches strain, +Deep caves and dreary main,-- +Wail, for the world's wrong! + +NOTE: +_6 strain cj. Rossetti; stain edition 1824. + +*** + + +LINES WRITTEN IN THE BAY OF LERICI. + +[Published from the Boscombe manuscripts by Dr. Garnett, "Macmillan's +Magazine", June, 1862; reprinted, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +She left me at the silent time +When the moon had ceased to climb +The azure path of Heaven's steep, +And like an albatross asleep, +Balanced on her wings of light, _5 +Hovered in the purple night, +Ere she sought her ocean nest +In the chambers of the West. +She left me, and I stayed alone +Thinking over every tone _10 +Which, though silent to the ear, +The enchanted heart could hear, +Like notes which die when born, but still +Haunt the echoes of the hill; +And feeling ever--oh, too much!-- _15 +The soft vibration of her touch, +As if her gentle hand, even now, +Lightly trembled on my brow; +And thus, although she absent were, +Memory gave me all of her _20 +That even Fancy dares to claim:-- +Her presence had made weak and tame +All passions, and I lived alone +In the time which is our own; +The past and future were forgot, _25 +As they had been, and would be, not. +But soon, the guardian angel gone, +The daemon reassumed his throne +In my faint heart. I dare not speak +My thoughts, but thus disturbed and weak _30 +I sat and saw the vessels glide +Over the ocean bright and wide, +Like spirit-winged chariots sent +O'er some serenest element +For ministrations strange and far; _35 +As if to some Elysian star +Sailed for drink to medicine +Such sweet and bitter pain as mine. +And the wind that winged their flight +From the land came fresh and light, _40 +And the scent of winged flowers, +And the coolness of the hours +Of dew, and sweet warmth left by day, +Were scattered o'er the twinkling bay. +And the fisher with his lamp _45 +And spear about the low rocks damp +Crept, and struck the fish which came +To worship the delusive flame. +Too happy they, whose pleasure sought +Extinguishes all sense and thought _50 +Of the regret that pleasure leaves, +Destroying life alone, not peace! + +NOTES: +_11 though silent Relics 1862; though now silent Mac. Mag. 1862. +_31 saw Relics 1862; watched Mac. Mag. 1862. + +*** + + +LINES: 'WE MEET NOT AS WE PARTED'. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +1. +We meet not as we parted, +We feel more than all may see; +My bosom is heavy-hearted, +And thine full of doubt for me:-- +One moment has bound the free. _5 + +2. +That moment is gone for ever, +Like lightning that flashed and died-- +Like a snowflake upon the river-- +Like a sunbeam upon the tide, +Which the dark shadows hide. _10 + +3. +That moment from time was singled +As the first of a life of pain; +The cup of its joy was mingled +--Delusion too sweet though vain! +Too sweet to be mine again. _15 + +4. +Sweet lips, could my heart have hidden +That its life was crushed by you, +Ye would not have then forbidden +The death which a heart so true +Sought in your briny dew. _20 + +5. +... +... +... +Methinks too little cost +For a moment so found, so lost! _25 + +*** + + +THE ISLE. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +There was a little lawny islet +By anemone and violet, +Like mosaic, paven: +And its roof was flowers and leaves +Which the summer's breath enweaves, _5 +Where nor sun nor showers nor breeze +Pierce the pines and tallest trees, +Each a gem engraven;-- +Girt by many an azure wave +With which the clouds and mountains pave _10 +A lake's blue chasm. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: TO THE MOON. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +Bright wanderer, fair coquette of Heaven, +To whom alone it has been given +To change and be adored for ever, +Envy not this dim world, for never +But once within its shadow grew _5 +One fair as-- + +*** + + +EPITAPH. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +These are two friends whose lives were undivided; +So let their memory be, now they have glided +Under the grave; let not their bones be parted, +For their two hearts in life were single-hearted. + +*** + + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1822, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + + This morn thy gallant bark + Sailed on a sunny sea: + 'Tis noon, and tempests dark + Have wrecked it on the lee. + Ah woe! ah woe! + By Spirits of the deep + Thou'rt cradled on the billow + To thy eternal sleep. + + Thou sleep'st upon the shore + Beside the knelling surge, + And Sea-nymphs evermore + Shall sadly chant thy dirge. + They come, they come, + The Spirits of the deep,-- + While near thy seaweed pillow + My lonely watch I keep. + + From far across the sea + I hear a loud lament, + By Echo's voice for thee + From Ocean's caverns sent. + O list! O list! + The Spirits of the deep! + They raise a wail of sorrow, + While I forever weep. + +With this last year of the life of Shelley these Notes end. They are +not what I intended them to be. I began with energy, and a burning +desire to impart to the world, in worthy language, the sense I have of +the virtues and genius of the beloved and the lost; my strength has +failed under the task. Recurrence to the past, full of its own deep and +unforgotten joys and sorrows, contrasted with succeeding years of +painful and solitary struggle, has shaken my health. Days of great +suffering have followed my attempts to write, and these again produced +a weakness and languor that spread their sinister influence over these +notes. I dislike speaking of myself, but cannot help apologizing to the +dead, and to the public, for not having executed in the manner I +desired the history I engaged to give of Shelley's writings. (I at one +time feared that the correction of the press might be less exact +through my illness; but I believe that it is nearly free from error. +Some asterisks occur in a few pages, as they did in the volume of +"Posthumous Poems", either because they refer to private concerns, or +because the original manuscript was left imperfect. Did any one see the +papers from which I drew that volume, the wonder would be how any eyes +or patience were capable of extracting it from so confused a mass, +interlined and broken into fragments, so that the sense could only be +deciphered and joined by guesses which might seem rather intuitive than +founded on reasoning. Yet I believe no mistake was made.) + +The winter of 1822 was passed in Pisa, if we might call that season +winter in which autumn merged into spring after the interval of but few +days of bleaker weather. Spring sprang up early, and with extreme +beauty. Shelley had conceived the idea of writing a tragedy on the +subject of Charles I. It was one that he believed adapted for a drama; +full of intense interest, contrasted character, and busy passion. He +had recommended it long before, when he encouraged me to attempt a +play. Whether the subject proved more difficult than he anticipated, or +whether in fact he could not bend his mind away from the broodings and +wanderings of thought, divested from human interest, which he best +loved, I cannot tell; but he proceeded slowly, and threw it aside for +one of the most mystical of his poems, the "Triumph of Life", on which +he was employed at the last. + +His passion for boating was fostered at this time by having among our +friends several sailors. His favourite companion, Edward Ellerker +Williams, of the 8th Light Dragoons, had begun his life in the navy, +and had afterwards entered the army; he had spent several years in +India, and his love for adventure and manly exercises accorded with +Shelley's taste. It was their favourite plan to build a boat such as +they could manage themselves, and, living on the sea-coast, to enjoy at +every hour and season the pleasure they loved best. Captain Roberts, +R.N., undertook to build the boat at Genoa, where he was also occupied +in building the "Bolivar" for Lord Byron. Ours was to be an open boat, +on a model taken from one of the royal dockyards. I have since heard +that there was a defect in this model, and that it was never seaworthy. +In the month of February, Shelley and his friend went to Spezia to seek +for houses for us. Only one was to be found at all suitable; however, a +trifle such as not finding a house could not stop Shelley; the one +found was to serve for all. It was unfurnished; we sent our furniture +by sea, and with a good deal of precipitation, arising from his +impatience, made our removal. We left Pisa on the 26th of April. + +The Bay of Spezia is of considerable extent, and divided by a rocky +promontory into a larger and smaller one. The town of Lerici is +situated on the eastern point, and in the depth of the smaller bay, +which bears the name of this town, is the village of San Terenzo. Our +house, Casa Magni, was close to this village; the sea came up to the +door, a steep hill sheltered it behind. The proprietor of the estate on +which it was situated was insane; he had begun to erect a large house +at the summit of the hill behind, but his malady prevented its being +finished, and it was falling into ruin. He had (and this to the +Italians had seemed a glaring symptom of very decided madness) rooted +up the olives on the hillside, and planted forest trees. These were +mostly young, but the plantation was more in English taste than I ever +elsewhere saw in Italy; some fine walnut and ilex trees intermingled +their dark massy foliage, and formed groups which still haunt my +memory, as then they satiated the eye with a sense of loveliness. The +scene was indeed of unimaginable beauty. The blue extent of waters, the +almost landlocked bay, the near castle of Lerici shutting it in to the +east, and distant Porto Venere to the west; the varied forms of the +precipitous rocks that bound in the beach, over which there was only a +winding rugged footpath towards Lerici, and none on the other side; the +tideless sea leaving no sands nor shingle, formed a picture such as one +sees in Salvator Rosa's landscapes only. Sometimes the sunshine +vanished when the sirocco raged--the 'ponente' the wind was called on +that shore. The gales and squalls that hailed our first arrival +surrounded the bay with foam; the howling wind swept round our exposed +house, and the sea roared unremittingly, so that we almost fancied +ourselves on board ship. At other times sunshine and calm invested sea +and sky, and the rich tints of Italian heaven bathed the scene in +bright and ever-varying tints. + +The natives were wilder than the place. Our near neighbours of San +Terenzo were more like savages than any people I ever before lived +among. Many a night they passed on the beach, singing, or rather +howling; the women dancing about among the waves that broke at their +feet, the men leaning against the rocks and joining in their loud wild +chorus. We could get no provisions nearer than Sarzana, at a distance +of three miles and a half off, with the torrent of the Magra between; +and even there the supply was very deficient. Had we been wrecked on an +island of the South Seas, we could scarcely have felt ourselves farther +from civilisation and comfort; but, where the sun shines, the latter +becomes an unnecessary luxury, and we had enough society among +ourselves. Yet I confess housekeeping became rather a toilsome task, +especially as I was suffering in my health, and could not exert myself +actively. + +At first the fatal boat had not arrived, and was expected with great +impatience. On Monday, 12th May, it came. Williams records the +long-wished-for fact in his journal: 'Cloudy and threatening weather. +M. Maglian called; and after dinner, and while walking with him on the +terrace, we discovered a strange sail coming round the point of Porto +Venere, which proved at length to be Shelley's boat. She had left Genoa +on Thursday last, but had been driven back by the prevailing bad winds. +A Mr. Heslop and two English seamen brought her round, and they speak +most highly of her performances. She does indeed excite my surprise and +admiration. Shelley and I walked to Lerici, and made a stretch off the +land to try her: and I find she fetches whatever she looks at. In +short, we have now a perfect plaything for the summer.'--It was thus +that short-sighted mortals welcomed Death, he having disguised his grim +form in a pleasing mask! The time of the friends was now spent on the +sea; the weather became fine, and our whole party often passed the +evenings on the water when the wind promised pleasant sailing. Shelley +and Williams made longer excursions; they sailed several times to +Massa. They had engaged one of the seamen who brought her round, a boy, +by name Charles Vivian; and they had not the slightest apprehension of +danger. When the weather was unfavourable, they employed themselves +with alterations in the rigging, and by building a boat of canvas and +reeds, as light as possible, to have on board the other for the +convenience of landing in waters too shallow for the larger vessel. +When Shelley was on board, he had his papers with him; and much of the +"Triumph of Life" was written as he sailed or weltered on that sea +which was soon to engulf him. + +The heats set in in the middle of June; the days became excessively +hot. But the sea-breeze cooled the air at noon, and extreme heat always +put Shelley in spirits. A long drought had preceded the heat; and +prayers for rain were being put up in the churches, and processions of +relics for the same effect took place in every town. At this time we +received letters announcing the arrival of Leigh Hunt at Genoa. Shelley +was very eager to see him. I was confined to my room by severe illness, +and could not move; it was agreed that Shelley and Williams should go +to Leghorn in the boat. Strange that no fear of danger crossed our +minds! Living on the sea-shore, the ocean became as a plaything: as a +child may sport with a lighted stick, till a spark inflames a forest, +and spreads destruction over all, so did we fearlessly and blindly +tamper with danger, and make a game of the terrors of the ocean. Our +Italian neighbours, even, trusted themselves as far as Massa in the +skiff; and the running down the line of coast to Leghorn gave no more +notion of peril than a fair-weather inland navigation would have done +to those who had never seen the sea. Once, some months before, Trelawny +had raised a warning voice as to the difference of our calm bay and the +open sea beyond; but Shelley and his friend, with their one sailor-boy, +thought themselves a match for the storms of the Mediterranean, in a +boat which they looked upon as equal to all it was put to do. + +On the 1st of July they left us. If ever shadow of future ill darkened +the present hour, such was over my mind when they went. During the +whole of our stay at Lerici, an intense presentiment of coming evil +brooded over my mind, and covered this beautiful place and genial +summer with the shadow of coming misery. I had vainly struggled with +these emotions--they seemed accounted for by my illness; but at this +hour of separation they recurred with renewed violence. I did not +anticipate danger for them, but a vague expectation of evil shook me to +agony, and I could scarcely bring myself to let them go. The day was +calm and clear; and, a fine breeze rising at twelve, they weighed for +Leghorn. They made the run of about fifty miles in seven hours and a +half. The "Bolivar" was in port; and, the regulations of the +Health-office not permitting them to go on shore after sunset, they +borrowed cushions from the larger vessel, and slept on board their +boat. + +They spent a week at Pisa and Leghorn. The want of rain was severely +felt in the country. The weather continued sultry and fine. I have +heard that Shelley all this time was in brilliant spirits. Not long +before, talking of presentiment, he had said the only one that he ever +found infallible was the certain advent of some evil fortune when he +felt peculiarly joyous. Yet, if ever fate whispered of coming disaster, +such inaudible but not unfelt prognostics hovered around us. The beauty +of the place seemed unearthly in its excess: the distance we were at +from all signs of civilization, the sea at our feet, its murmurs or its +roaring for ever in our ears,--all these things led the mind to brood +over strange thoughts, and, lifting it from everyday life, caused it to +be familiar with the unreal. A sort of spell surrounded us; and each +day, as the voyagers did not return, we grew restless and disquieted, +and yet, strange to say, we were not fearful of the most apparent +danger. + +The spell snapped; it was all over; an interval of agonizing doubt--of +days passed in miserable journeys to gain tidings, of hopes that took +firmer root even as they were more baseless--was changed to the +certainty of the death that eclipsed all happiness for the survivors +for evermore. + +There was something in our fate peculiarly harrowing. The remains of +those we lost were cast on shore; but, by the quarantine-laws of the +coast, we were not permitted to have possession of them--the law with +respect to everything cast on land by the sea being that such should be +burned, to prevent the possibility of any remnant bringing the plague +into Italy; and no representation could alter the law. At length, +through the kind and unwearied exertions of Mr. Dawkins, our Charge +d'Affaires at Florence, we gained permission to receive the ashes after +the bodies were consumed. Nothing could equal the zeal of Trelawny in +carrying our wishes into effect. He was indefatigable in his exertions, +and full of forethought and sagacity in his arrangements. It was a +fearful task; he stood before us at last, his hands scorched and +blistered by the flames of the funeral-pyre, and by touching the burnt +relics as he placed them in the receptacles prepared for the purpose. +And there, in compass of that small case, was gathered all that +remained on earth of him whose genius and virtue were a crown of glory +to the world--whose love had been the source of happiness, peace, and +good,--to be buried with him! + +The concluding stanzas of the "Adonais" pointed out where the remains +ought to be deposited; in addition to which our beloved child lay +buried in the cemetery at Rome. Thither Shelley's ashes were conveyed; +and they rest beneath one of the antique weed-grown towers that recur +at intervals in the circuit of the massy ancient wall of Rome. He +selected the hallowed place himself; there is + + 'the sepulchre, + Oh, not of him, but of our joy!-- + ... + And gray walls moulder round, on which dull Time + Feeds, like slow fire upon a hoary brand; + And one keen pyramid with wedge sublime, + Pavilioning the dust of him who planned + This refuge for his memory, doth stand + Like flame transformed to marble; and beneath, + A field is spread, on which a newer band + Have pitched in Heaven's smile their camp of death, + Welcoming him we lose with scarce extinguished breath.' + +Could sorrow for the lost, and shuddering anguish at the vacancy left +behind, be soothed by poetic imaginations, there was something in +Shelley's fate to mitigate pangs which yet, alas! could not be so +mitigated; for hard reality brings too miserably home to the mourner +all that is lost of happiness, all of lonely unsolaced struggle that +remains. Still, though dreams and hues of poetry cannot blunt grief, it +invests his fate with a sublime fitness, which those less nearly allied +may regard with complacency. A year before he had poured into verse all +such ideas about death as give it a glory of its own. He had, as it now +seems, almost anticipated his own destiny; and, when the mind figures +his skiff wrapped from sight by the thunder-storm, as it was last seen +upon the purple sea, and then, as the cloud of the tempest passed away, +no sign remained of where it had been (Captain Roberts watched the +vessel with his glass from the top of the lighthouse of Leghorn, on its +homeward track. They were off Via Reggio, at some distance from shore, +when a storm was driven over the sea. It enveloped them and several +larger vessels in darkness. When the cloud passed onwards, Roberts +looked again, and saw every other vessel sailing on the ocean except +their little schooner, which had vanished. From that time he could +scarcely doubt the fatal truth; yet we fancied that they might have +been driven towards Elba or Corsica, and so be saved. The observation +made as to the spot where the boat disappeared caused it to be found, +through the exertions of Trelawny for that effect. It had gone down in +ten fathom water; it had not capsized, and, except such things as had +floated from her, everything was found on board exactly as it had been +placed when they sailed. The boat itself was uninjured. Roberts +possessed himself of her, and decked her; but she proved not seaworthy, +and her shattered planks now lie rotting on the shore of one of the +Ionian islands, on which she was wrecked.)--who but will regard as a +prophecy the last stanza of the "Adonais"? + + 'The breath whose might I have invoked in song + Descends on me; my spirit's bark is driven, + Far from the shore, far from the trembling throng + Whose sails were never to the tempest given; + The massy earth and sphered skies are riven! + I am borne darkly, fearfully, afar; + Whilst burning through the inmost veil of Heaven, + The soul of Adonais, like a star, + Beacons from the abode where the Eternal are.' + +Putney, May 1, 1839. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 4798 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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A. + +Release Date: December, 2003 [EBook #4798] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on March 25, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHELLEY'S COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS *** + + + + +Produced by Sue Asscher <asschers@dingoblue.net.au> + + + + + + +THE COMPLETE + +POETICAL WORKS + +OF + +PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY + +VOLUME 2 + +OXFORD EDITION. +INCLUDING MATERIALS NEVER BEFORE +PRINTED IN ANY EDITION OF THE POEMS. + +EDITED WITH TEXTUAL NOTES + +BY + +THOMAS HUTCHINSON, M. A. +EDITOR OF THE OXFORD WORDSWORTH. + +1914. + + +CONTENTS. + + +EARLY POEMS [1814, 1815]: + +STANZA, WRITTEN AT BRACKNELL. + +STANZAS.--APRIL, 1814. + +TO HARRIET. + +TO MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT GODWIN. + +TO --. 'YET LOOK ON ME'. + +MUTABILITY. + +ON DEATH. + +A SUMMER EVENING CHURCHYARD. + +TO --. 'OH! THERE ARE SPIRITS OF THE AIR'. + +TO WORDSWORTH. + +FEELINGS OF A REPUBLICAN ON THE FALL OF BONAPARTE + +LINES: 'THE COLD EARTH SLEPT BELOW' + +NOTE ON THE EARLY POEMS, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +POEMS WRITTEN IN 1816: + +THE SUNSET. + +HYMN TO INTELLECTUAL BEAUTY. + +MONT BLANC. + +CANCELLED PASSAGE OF MONT BLANC. + +FRAGMENT: HOME. + +FRAGMENT OF A GHOST STORY. + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1816, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +POEMS WRITTEN IN 1817: + +MARIANNE'S DREAM. + +TO CONSTANTIA, SINGING. + +THE SAME: STANZAS 1 AND 2. + +TO CONSTANTIA. + +FRAGMENT: TO ONE SINGING. + +A FRAGMENT: TO MUSIC. + +ANOTHER FRAGMENT TO MUSIC. + +'MIGHTY EAGLE'. + +TO THE LORD CHANCELLOR. + +TO WILLIAM SHELLEY. + +FROM THE ORIGINAL DRAFT OF THE POEM TO WILLIAM SHELLEY. + +ON FANNY GODWIN. + +LINES: 'THAT TIME IS DEAD FOR EVER'. + +DEATH. + +OTHO. + +FRAGMENTS SUPPOSED TO BE PARTS OF OTHO. + +'O THAT A CHARIOT OF CLOUD WERE MINE'. + +FRAGMENTS: + TO A FRIEND RELEASED FROM PRISON. + SATAN BROKEN LOOSE. + IGNICULUS DESIDERII. + AMOR AETERNUS. + THOUGHTS COME AND GO IN SOLITUDE. + +A HATE-SONG. + +LINES TO A CRITIC. + +OZYMANDIAS. + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1817, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +POEMS WRITTEN IN 1818. + +TO THE NILE. + +PASSAGE OF THE APENNINES. + +THE PAST. + +TO MARY --. + +ON A FADED VIOLET. + +LINES WRITTEN AMONG THE EUGANEAN HILLS. + +SCENE FROM "TASSO". + +SONG FOR "TASSO". + +INVOCATION TO MISERY. + +STANZAS WRITTEN IN DEJECTION, NEAR NAPLES. + +THE WOODMAN AND THE NIGHTINGALE. + +MARENGHI. + +SONNET: 'LIFT NOT THE PAINTED VEIL'. + +FRAGMENTS: + TO BYRON. + APOSTROPHE TO SILENCE. + THE LAKE'S MARGIN. + 'MY HEAD IS WILD WITH WEEPING'. + THE VINE-SHROUD. + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1818, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +POEMS WRITTEN IN 1819: + +LINES WRITTEN DURING THE CASTLEREAGH ADMINISTRATION. + +SONG TO THE MEN OF ENGLAND. + +SIMILES FOR TWO POLITICAL CHARACTERS OF 1819. + +FRAGMENT: TO THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. + +FRAGMENT: 'WHAT MEN GAIN FAIRLY'. + +A NEW NATIONAL ANTHEM. + +SONNET: ENGLAND IN 1819. + +AN ODE WRITTEN OCTOBER, 1819. + +CANCELLED STANZA. + +ODE TO HEAVEN. + +ODE TO THE WEST WIND. + +AN EXHORTATION. + +THE INDIAN SERENADE. + +CANCELLED PASSAGE. + +TO SOPHIA [MISS STACEY]. + +TO WILLIAM SHELLEY, 1. + +TO WILLIAM SHELLEY, 2. + +TO MARY SHELLEY, 1. + +TO MARY SHELLEY, 2. + +ON THE MEDUSA OF LEONARDO DA VINCI. + +LOVE'S PHILOSOPHY. + +FRAGMENT: 'FOLLOW TO THE DEEP WOOD'S WEEDS'. + +THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. + +FRAGMENTS: + LOVE THE UNIVERSE TO-DAY. + 'A GENTLE STORY OF TWO LOVERS YOUNG'. + LOVE'S TENDER ATMOSPHERE. + WEDDED SOULS. + 'IS IT THAT IN SOME BRIGHTER SPHERE'. + SUFFICIENT UNTO THE DAY. + 'YE GENTLE VISITATIONS OF CALM THOUGHT'. + MUSIC AND SWEET POETRY. + THE SEPULCHRE OF MEMORY. + 'WHEN A LOVER CLASPS HIS FAIREST'. + 'WAKE THE SERPENT NOT'. + RAIN. + A TALE UNTOLD. + TO ITALY. + WINE OF THE FAIRIES. + A ROMAN'S CHAMBER. + ROME AND NATURE. + +VARIATION OF THE SONG OF THE MOON. + +CANCELLED STANZA OF THE MASK OF ANARCHY. + +NOTE BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +POEMS WRITTEN IN 1820: + +THE SENSITIVE PLANT. + +CANCELLED PASSAGE. + +A VISION OF THE SEA. + +THE CLOUD. + +TO A SKYLARK. + +ODE TO LIBERTY. + +CANCELLED PASSAGE. + +TO --. 'I FEAR THY KISSES, GENTLE MAIDEN'. + +ARETHUSA. + +SONG OF PROSERPINE. + +HYMN OF APOLLO. + +HYMN OF PAN. + +THE QUESTION. + +THE TWO SPIRITS. AN ALLEGORY. + +ODE TO NAPLES. + +AUTUMN: A DIRGE. + +THE WANING MOON. + +TO THE MOON. + +DEATH. + +LIBERTY. + +SUMMER AND WINTER. + +THE TOWER OF FAMINE. + +AN ALLEGORY. + +THE WORLD'S WANDERERS. + +SONNET: 'YE HASTEN TO THE GRAVE!'. + +LINES TO A REVIEWER. + +FRAGMENT OF A SATIRE ON SATIRE. + +GOOD-NIGHT. + +BUONA NOTTE. + +ORPHEUS. + +FIORDISPINA. + +TIME LONG PAST. + +FRAGMENTS: + THE DESERTS OF DIM SLEEP. + 'THE VIEWLESS AND INVISIBLE CONSEQUENCE'. + A SERPENT-FACE. + DEATH IN LIFE. + 'SUCH HOPE, AS IS THE SICK DESPAIR OF GOOD'. + 'ALAS THIS IS NOT WHAT I THOUGHT LIFE WAS'. + MILTON'S SPIRIT. + 'UNRISEN SPLENDOUR OF THE BRIGHTEST SUN'. + PATER OMNIPOTENS. + TO THE MIND OF MAN. + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1820, BY MRS SHELLEY. + +POEMS WRITTEN IN 1821: + +DIRGE FOR THE YEAR. + +TO NIGHT. + +TIME. + +LINES: 'FAR, FAR AWAY'. + +FROM THE ARABIC: AN IMITATION. + +TO EMILIA VIVIANI. + +THE FUGITIVES. + +TO --. 'MUSIC, WHEN SOFT VOICES DIE'. + +SONG: 'RARELY, RARELY, COMEST THOU'. + +MUTABILITY. + +LINES WRITTEN ON HEARING THE NEWS OF THE DEATH OF NAPOLEON. + +SONNET: POLITICAL GREATNESS. + +THE AZIOLA. + +A LAMENT. + +REMEMBRANCE. + +TO EDWARD WILLIAMS. + +TO --. 'ONE WORD IS TOO OFTEN PROFANED'. + +TO --. 'WHEN PASSION'S TRANCE IS OVERPAST'. + +A BRIDAL SONG. + +EPITHALAMIUM. + +ANOTHER VERSION OF THE SAME. + +LOVE, HOPE, DESIRE, AND FEAR. + +FRAGMENTS WRITTEN FOR "HELLAS". + +FRAGMENT: 'I WOULD NOT BE A KING'. + +GINEVRA. + +EVENING: PONTE AL MARE, PISA. + +THE BOAT ON THE SERCHIO. + +MUSIC. + +SONNET TO BYRON. + +FRAGMENT ON KEATS. + +FRAGMENT: 'METHOUGHT I WAS A BILLOW IN THE CROWD'. + +TO-MORROW. + +STANZA: 'IF I WALK IN AUTUMN'S EVEN'. + +FRAGMENTS: + A WANDERER. + LIFE ROUNDED WITH SLEEP. + 'I FAINT, I PERISH WITH MY LOVE'. + THE LADY OF THE SOUTH. + ZEPHYRUS THE AWAKENER. + RAIN. + 'WHEN SOFT WINDS AND SUNNY SKIES'. + 'AND THAT I WALK THUS PROUDLY CROWNED'. + 'THE RUDE WIND IS SINGING'. + 'GREAT SPIRIT'. + 'O THOU IMMORTAL DEITY'. + THE FALSE LAUREL AND THE TRUE. + MAY THE LIMNER. + BEAUTY'S HALO. + 'THE DEATH KNELL IS RINGING'. + 'I STOOD UPON A HEAVEN-CLEAVING TURRET'. + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1821, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +POEMS WRITTEN IN 1822: + +THE ZUCCA. + +THE MAGNETIC LADY TO HER PATIENT. + +LINES: 'WHEN THE LAMP IS SHATTERED'. + +TO JANE: THE INVITATION. + +TO JANE: THE RECOLLECTION. + +THE PINE FOREST OF THE CASCINE NEAR PISA. + +WITH A GUITAR, TO JANE. + +TO JANE: 'THE KEEN STARS WERE TWINKLING'. + +A DIRGE. + +LINES WRITTEN IN THE BAY OF LERICI. + +LINES: 'WE MEET NOT AS WE PARTED'. + +THE ISLE. + +FRAGMENT: TO THE MOON. + +EPITAPH. + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1822, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + + +*** + + +EARLY POEMS [1814, 1815]. + +[The poems which follow appeared, with a few exceptions, either in the +volumes published from time to time by Shelley himself, or in the +"Posthumous Poems" of 1824, or in the "Poetical Works" of 1839, of +which a second and enlarged edition was published by Mrs. Shelley in +the same year. A few made their first appearance in some fugitive +publication--such as Leigh Hunt's "Literary Pocket-Book"--and were +subsequently incorporated in the collective editions. In every case the +editio princeps and (where this is possible) the exact date of +composition are indicated below the title.] + +*** + + +STANZA, WRITTEN AT BRACKNELL. + +[Composed March, 1814. Published in Hogg's "Life of Shelley", 1858.] + +Thy dewy looks sink in my breast; +Thy gentle words stir poison there; +Thou hast disturbed the only rest +That was the portion of despair! +Subdued to Duty's hard control, _5 +I could have borne my wayward lot: +The chains that bind this ruined soul +Had cankered then--but crushed it not. + +*** + + +STANZAS.--APRIL, 1814. + +[Composed at Bracknell, April, 1814. Published with "Alastor", 1816.] + +Away! the moor is dark beneath the moon, +Rapid clouds have drank the last pale beam of even: +Away! the gathering winds will call the darkness soon, +And profoundest midnight shroud the serene lights of heaven. + +Pause not! The time is past! Every voice cries, Away! _5 +Tempt not with one last tear thy friend's ungentle mood: +Thy lover's eye, so glazed and cold, dares not entreat thy stay: +Duty and dereliction guide thee back to solitude. + +Away, away! to thy sad and silent home; +Pour bitter tears on its desolated hearth; _10 +Watch the dim shades as like ghosts they go and come, +And complicate strange webs of melancholy mirth. + +The leaves of wasted autumn woods shall float around thine head: +The blooms of dewy spring shall gleam beneath thy feet: +But thy soul or this world must fade in the frost that binds the dead, _15 +Ere midnight's frown and morning's smile, ere thou and peace may meet. + +The cloud shadows of midnight possess their own repose, +For the weary winds are silent, or the moon is in the deep: +Some respite to its turbulence unresting ocean knows; +Whatever moves, or toils, or grieves, hath its appointed sleep. _20 + +Thou in the grave shalt rest--yet till the phantoms flee +Which that house and heath and garden made dear to thee erewhile, +Thy remembrance, and repentance, and deep musings are not free +From the music of two voices and the light of one sweet smile. + +NOTE: +_6 tear 1816; glance 1839. + +*** + + +TO HARRIET. + +[Composed May, 1814. Published (from the Esdaile manuscript) by Dowden, +"Life of Shelley", 1887.] + +Thy look of love has power to calm +The stormiest passion of my soul; +Thy gentle words are drops of balm +In life's too bitter bowl; +No grief is mine, but that alone _5 +These choicest blessings I have known. + +Harriet! if all who long to live +In the warm sunshine of thine eye, +That price beyond all pain must give,-- +Beneath thy scorn to die; _10 +Then hear thy chosen own too late +His heart most worthy of thy hate. + +Be thou, then, one among mankind +Whose heart is harder not for state, +Thou only virtuous, gentle, kind, _15 +Amid a world of hate; +And by a slight endurance seal +A fellow-being's lasting weal. + +For pale with anguish is his cheek, +His breath comes fast, his eyes are dim, _20 +Thy name is struggling ere he speak, +Weak is each trembling limb; +In mercy let him not endure +The misery of a fatal cure. + +Oh, trust for once no erring guide! _25 +Bid the remorseless feeling flee; +'Tis malice, 'tis revenge, 'tis pride, +'Tis anything but thee; +Oh, deign a nobler pride to prove, +And pity if thou canst not love. _30 + +*** + + +TO MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT GODWIN. + +[Composed June, 1814. Published in "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +1. +Mine eyes were dim with tears unshed; +Yes, I was firm--thus wert not thou;-- +My baffled looks did fear yet dread +To meet thy looks--I could not know +How anxiously they sought to shine _5 +With soothing pity upon mine. + +2. +To sit and curb the soul's mute rage +Which preys upon itself alone; +To curse the life which is the cage +Of fettered grief that dares not groan, _10 +Hiding from many a careless eye +The scorned load of agony. + +3. +Whilst thou alone, then not regarded, +The ... thou alone should be, +To spend years thus, and be rewarded, _15 +As thou, sweet love, requited me +When none were near--Oh! I did wake +From torture for that moment's sake. + +4. +Upon my heart thy accents sweet +Of peace and pity fell like dew _20 +On flowers half dead;--thy lips did meet +Mine tremblingly; thy dark eyes threw +Their soft persuasion on my brain, +Charming away its dream of pain. + +5. +We are not happy, sweet! our state _25 +Is strange and full of doubt and fear; +More need of words that ills abate;-- +Reserve or censure come not near +Our sacred friendship, lest there be +No solace left for thee and me. _30 + +6. +Gentle and good and mild thou art, +Nor can I live if thou appear +Aught but thyself, or turn thine heart +Away from me, or stoop to wear +The mask of scorn, although it be _35 +To hide the love thou feel'st for me. + +NOTES: +_2 wert 1839; did 1824. +_3 fear 1824, 1839; yearn cj. Rossetti. +_23 Their 1839; thy 1824. +_30 thee]thou 1824, 1839. +_32 can I 1839; I can 1824. +_36 feel'st 1839; feel 1824. + +*** + +TO --. + +[Published in "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition. See Editor's Note.] + +Yet look on me--take not thine eyes away, +Which feed upon the love within mine own, +Which is indeed but the reflected ray +Of thine own beauty from my spirit thrown. +Yet speak to me--thy voice is as the tone _5 +Of my heart's echo, and I think I hear +That thou yet lovest me; yet thou alone +Like one before a mirror, without care +Of aught but thine own features, imaged there; + +And yet I wear out life in watching thee; _10 +A toil so sweet at times, and thou indeed +Art kind when I am sick, and pity me... + +*** + + +MUTABILITY. + +[Published with "Alastor", 1816.] + +We are as clouds that veil the midnight moon; +How restlessly they speed, and gleam, and quiver, +Streaking the darkness radiantly!--yet soon +Night closes round, and they are lost for ever: + +Or like forgotten lyres, whose dissonant strings _5 +Give various response to each varying blast, +To whose frail frame no second motion brings +One mood or modulation like the last. + +We rest.--A dream has power to poison sleep; +We rise.--One wandering thought pollutes the day; _10 +We feel, conceive or reason, laugh or weep; +Embrace fond woe, or cast our cares away: + +It is the same!--For, be it joy or sorrow, +The path of its departure still is free: +Man's yesterday may ne'er be like his morrow; _15 +Nought may endure but Mutability. + +NOTES: +_15 may 1816; can Lodore, chapter 49, 1835 (Mrs. Shelley). +_16 Nought may endure but 1816; + Nor aught endure save Lodore, chapter 49, 1835 (Mrs. Shelley). + +*** + + +ON DEATH. + +[For the date of composition see Editor's Note. +Published with "Alastor", 1816.] + +THERE IS NO WORK, NOR DEVICE, NOR KNOWLEDGE, NOR WISDOM, +IN THE GRAVE, WHITHER THOU GOEST.--Ecclesiastes. + +The pale, the cold, and the moony smile +Which the meteor beam of a starless night +Sheds on a lonely and sea-girt isle, +Ere the dawning of morn's undoubted light, +Is the flame of life so fickle and wan +That flits round our steps till their strength is gone. _5 + +O man! hold thee on in courage of soul +Through the stormy shades of thy worldly way, +And the billows of cloud that around thee roll +Shall sleep in the light of a wondrous day, _10 +Where Hell and Heaven shall leave thee free +To the universe of destiny. + +This world is the nurse of all we know, +This world is the mother of all we feel, +And the coming of death is a fearful blow _15 +To a brain unencompassed with nerves of steel; +When all that we know, or feel, or see, +Shall pass like an unreal mystery. + +The secret things of the grave are there, +Where all but this frame must surely be, _20 +Though the fine-wrought eye and the wondrous ear +No longer will live to hear or to see +All that is great and all that is strange +In the boundless realm of unending change. + +Who telleth a tale of unspeaking death? _25 +Who lifteth the veil of what is to come? +Who painteth the shadows that are beneath +The wide-winding caves of the peopled tomb? +Or uniteth the hopes of what shall be +With the fears and the love for that which we see? _30 + +*** + + +A SUMMER EVENING CHURCHYARD. + +LECHLADE, GLOUCESTERSHIRE. + +[Composed September, 1815. Published with "Alastor", 1816.] + +The wind has swept from the wide atmosphere +Each vapour that obscured the sunset's ray; +And pallid Evening twines its beaming hair +In duskier braids around the languid eyes of Day: +Silence and Twilight, unbeloved of men, _5 +Creep hand in hand from yon obscurest glen. + +They breathe their spells towards the departing day, +Encompassing the earth, air, stars, and sea; +Light, sound, and motion own the potent sway, +Responding to the charm with its own mystery. _10 +The winds are still, or the dry church-tower grass +Knows not their gentle motions as they pass. + +Thou too, aereal Pile! whose pinnacles +Point from one shrine like pyramids of fire, +Obeyest in silence their sweet solemn spells, _15 +Clothing in hues of heaven thy dim and distant spire, +Around whose lessening and invisible height +Gather among the stars the clouds of night. + +The dead are sleeping in their sepulchres: +And, mouldering as they sleep, a thrilling sound, _20 +Half sense, half thought, among the darkness stirs, +Breathed from their wormy beds all living things around, +And mingling with the still night and mute sky +Its awful hush is felt inaudibly. + +Thus solemnized and softened, death is mild _25 +And terrorless as this serenest night: +Here could I hope, like some inquiring child +Sporting on graves, that death did hide from human sight +Sweet secrets, or beside its breathless sleep +That loveliest dreams perpetual watch did keep. _30 + +*** + + +TO --. + +[Published with "Alastor", 1816. See Editor's Note.] + +DAKRTSI DIOISO POTMON 'APOTMON. + +Oh! there are spirits of the air, +And genii of the evening breeze, +And gentle ghosts, with eyes as fair +As star-beams among twilight trees:-- +Such lovely ministers to meet _5 +Oft hast thou turned from men thy lonely feet. + +With mountain winds, and babbling springs, +And moonlight seas, that are the voice +Of these inexplicable things, +Thou didst hold commune, and rejoice _10 +When they did answer thee; but they +Cast, like a worthless boon, thy love away. + +And thou hast sought in starry eyes +Beams that were never meant for thine, +Another's wealth:--tame sacrifice +To a fond faith! still dost thou pine? _15 +Still dost thou hope that greeting hands, +Voice, looks, or lips, may answer thy demands? + +Ah! wherefore didst thou build thine hope +On the false earth's inconstancy? _20 +Did thine own mind afford no scope +Of love, or moving thoughts to thee? +That natural scenes or human smiles +Could steal the power to wind thee in their wiles? + +Yes, all the faithless smiles are fled _25 +Whose falsehood left thee broken-hearted; +The glory of the moon is dead; +Night's ghosts and dreams have now departed; +Thine own soul still is true to thee, +But changed to a foul fiend through misery. _30 + +This fiend, whose ghastly presence ever +Beside thee like thy shadow hangs, +Dream not to chase;--the mad endeavour +Would scourge thee to severer pangs. +Be as thou art. Thy settled fate, +Dark as it is, all change would aggravate. _35 + +NOTES: +_1 of 1816; in 1839. +_8 moonlight 1816; mountain 1839. + +*** + + +TO WORDSWORTH. + +[Published with "Alastor", 1816.] + +Poet of Nature, thou hast wept to know +That things depart which never may return: +Childhood and youth, friendship and love's first glow, +Have fled like sweet dreams, leaving thee to mourn. +These common woes I feel. One loss is mine _5 +Which thou too feel'st, yet I alone deplore. +Thou wert as a lone star, whose light did shine +On some frail bark in winter's midnight roar: +Thou hast like to a rock-built refuge stood +Above the blind and battling multitude: _10 +In honoured poverty thy voice did weave +Songs consecrate to truth and liberty,-- +Deserting these, thou leavest me to grieve, +Thus having been, that thou shouldst cease to be. + +*** + + +FEELINGS OF A REPUBLICAN ON THE FALL OF BONAPARTE. + +[Published with "Alastor", 1816.] + +I hated thee, fallen tyrant! I did groan +To think that a most unambitious slave, +Like thou, shouldst dance and revel on the grave +Of Liberty. Thou mightst have built thy throne +Where it had stood even now: thou didst prefer _5 +A frail and bloody pomp which Time has swept +In fragments towards Oblivion. Massacre, +For this I prayed, would on thy sleep have crept, +Treason and Slavery, Rapine, Fear, and Lust, +And stifled thee, their minister. I know _10 +Too late, since thou and France are in the dust, +That Virtue owns a more eternal foe +Than Force or Fraud: old Custom, legal Crime, +And bloody Faith the foulest birth of Time. + +*** + + +LINES. + +[Published in Hunt's "Literary Pocket-Book", 1823, where it is headed +"November, 1815". Reprinted in the "Posthumous Poems", 1824. See +Editor's Note.] + +1. +The cold earth slept below, +Above the cold sky shone; +And all around, with a chilling sound, +From caves of ice and fields of snow, +The breath of night like death did flow _5 +Beneath the sinking moon. + +2. +The wintry hedge was black, +The green grass was not seen, +The birds did rest on the bare thorn's breast, +Whose roots, beside the pathway track, _10 +Had bound their folds o'er many a crack +Which the frost had made between. + +3. +Thine eyes glowed in the glare +Of the moon's dying light; +As a fen-fire's beam on a sluggish stream _15 +Gleams dimly, so the moon shone there, +And it yellowed the strings of thy raven hair, +That shook in the wind of night. + +4. +The moon made thy lips pale, beloved-- +The wind made thy bosom chill-- _20 +The night did shed on thy dear head +Its frozen dew, and thou didst lie +Where the bitter breath of the naked sky +Might visit thee at will. + +NOTE: +_17 raven 1823; tangled 1824. + +*** + + +NOTE ON THE EARLY POEMS, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +The remainder of Shelley's Poems will be arranged in the order in which +they were written. Of course, mistakes will occur in placing some of +the shorter ones; for, as I have said, many of these were thrown aside, +and I never saw them till I had the misery of looking over his writings +after the hand that traced them was dust; and some were in the hands of +others, and I never saw them till now. The subjects of the poems are +often to me an unerring guide; but on other occasions I can only guess, +by finding them in the pages of the same manuscript book that contains +poems with the date of whose composition I am fully conversant. In the +present arrangement all his poetical translations will be placed +together at the end. + +The loss of his early papers prevents my being able to give any of the +poetry of his boyhood. Of the few I give as "Early Poems", the greater +part were published with "Alastor"; some of them were written +previously, some at the same period. The poem beginning 'Oh, there are +spirits in the air' was addressed in idea to Coleridge, whom he never +knew; and at whose character he could only guess imperfectly, through +his writings, and accounts he heard of him from some who knew him well. +He regarded his change of opinions as rather an act of will than +conviction, and believed that in his inner heart he would be haunted by +what Shelley considered the better and holier aspirations of his youth. +The summer evening that suggested to him the poem written in the +churchyard of Lechlade occurred during his voyage up the Thames in +1815. He had been advised by a physician to live as much as possible in +the open air; and a fortnight of a bright warm July was spent in +tracing the Thames to its source. He never spent a season more +tranquilly than the summer of 1815. He had just recovered from a severe +pulmonary attack; the weather was warm and pleasant. He lived near +Windsor Forest; and his life was spent under its shades or on the +water, meditating subjects for verse. Hitherto, he had chiefly aimed at +extending his political doctrines, and attempted so to do by appeals in +prose essays to the people, exhorting them to claim their rights; but +he had now begun to feel that the time for action was not ripe in +England, and that the pen was the only instrument wherewith to prepare +the way for better things. + +In the scanty journals kept during those years I find a record of the +books that Shelley read during several years. During the years of 1814 +and 1815 the list is extensive. It includes, in Greek, Homer, Hesiod, +Theocritus, the histories of Thucydides and Herodotus, and Diogenes +Laertius. In Latin, Petronius, Suetonius, some of the works of Cicero, +a large proportion of those of Seneca and Livy. In English, Milton's +poems, Wordsworth's "Excursion", Southey's "Madoc" and "Thalaba", Locke +"On the Human Understanding", Bacon's "Novum Organum". In Italian, +Ariosto, Tasso, and Alfieri. In French, the "Reveries d'un Solitaire" +of Rousseau. To these may be added several modern books of travel. He +read few novels. + +*** + + +POEMS WRITTEN IN 1816. + + +THE SUNSET. + +[Written at Bishopsgate, 1816 (spring). Published in full in the +"Posthumous Poems", 1824. Lines 9-20, and 28-42, appeared in Hunt's +"Literary Pocket-Book", 1823, under the titles, respectively, of +"Sunset. From an Unpublished Poem", And "Grief. A Fragment".] + +There late was One within whose subtle being, +As light and wind within some delicate cloud +That fades amid the blue noon's burning sky, +Genius and death contended. None may know +The sweetness of the joy which made his breath _5 +Fail, like the trances of the summer air, +When, with the Lady of his love, who then +First knew the unreserve of mingled being, +He walked along the pathway of a field +Which to the east a hoar wood shadowed o'er, _10 +But to the west was open to the sky. +There now the sun had sunk, but lines of gold +Hung on the ashen clouds, and on the points +Of the far level grass and nodding flowers +And the old dandelion's hoary beard, _15 +And, mingled with the shades of twilight, lay +On the brown massy woods--and in the east +The broad and burning moon lingeringly rose +Between the black trunks of the crowded trees, +While the faint stars were gathering overhead.-- _20 +'Is it not strange, Isabel,' said the youth, +'I never saw the sun? We will walk here +To-morrow; thou shalt look on it with me.' + +That night the youth and lady mingled lay +In love and sleep--but when the morning came _25 +The lady found her lover dead and cold. +Let none believe that God in mercy gave +That stroke. The lady died not, nor grew wild, +But year by year lived on--in truth I think +Her gentleness and patience and sad smiles, _30 +And that she did not die, but lived to tend +Her aged father, were a kind of madness, +If madness 'tis to be unlike the world. +For but to see her were to read the tale +Woven by some subtlest bard, to make hard hearts _35 +Dissolve away in wisdom-working grief;-- +Her eyes were black and lustreless and wan: +Her eyelashes were worn away with tears, +Her lips and cheeks were like things dead--so pale; +Her hands were thin, and through their wandering veins _40 +And weak articulations might be seen +Day's ruddy light. The tomb of thy dead self +Which one vexed ghost inhabits, night and day, +Is all, lost child, that now remains of thee! + +'Inheritor of more than earth can give, _45 +Passionless calm and silence unreproved, +Whether the dead find, oh, not sleep! but rest, +And are the uncomplaining things they seem, +Or live, or drop in the deep sea of Love; +Oh, that like thine, mine epitaph were--Peace!' _50 +This was the only moan she ever made. + +NOTES: +_4 death 1839; youth 1824. +_22 sun? We will walk 1824; sunrise? We will wake cj. Forman. +_37 Her eyes...wan Hunt, 1823; omitted 1824, 1839. +_38 worn 1824; torn 1839. + +*** + + +HYMN TO INTELLECTUAL BEAUTY. + +[Composed, probably, in Switzerland, in the summer of 1816. Published +in Hunt's "Examiner", January 19, 1817, and with "Rosalind and Helen", +1819.] + +1. +The awful shadow of some unseen Power +Floats though unseen among us,--visiting +This various world with as inconstant wing +As summer winds that creep from flower to flower,-- +Like moonbeams that behind some piny mountain shower, _5 +It visits with inconstant glance +Each human heart and countenance; +Like hues and harmonies of evening,-- +Like clouds in starlight widely spread,-- +Like memory of music fled,-- _10 +Like aught that for its grace may be +Dear, and yet dearer for its mystery. + +2. +Spirit of BEAUTY, that dost consecrate +With thine own hues all thou dost shine upon +Of human thought or form,--where art thou gone? _15 +Why dost thou pass away and leave our state, +This dim vast vale of tears, vacant and desolate? +Ask why the sunlight not for ever +Weaves rainbows o'er yon mountain-river, +Why aught should fail and fade that once is shown, _20 +Why fear and dream and death and birth +Cast on the daylight of this earth +Such gloom,--why man has such a scope +For love and hate, despondency and hope? + +3. +No voice from some sublimer world hath ever _25 +To sage or poet these responses given-- +Therefore the names of Demon, Ghost, and Heaven. +Remain the records of their vain endeavour, +Frail spells--whose uttered charm might not avail to sever, +From all we hear and all we see, _30 +Doubt, chance, and mutability. +Thy light alone--like mist o'er mountains driven, +Or music by the night-wind sent +Through strings of some still instrument, +Or moonlight on a midnight stream, _35 +Gives grace and truth to life's unquiet dream. + +4. +Love, Hope, and Self-esteem, like clouds depart +And come, for some uncertain moments lent. +Man were immortal, and omnipotent, +Didst thou, unknown and awful as thou art, _40 +Keep with thy glorious train firm state within his heart. +Thou messenger of sympathies, +That wax and wane in lovers' eyes-- +Thou--that to human thought art nourishment, +Like darkness to a dying flame! _45 +Depart not as thy shadow came +Depart not--lest the grave should be, +Like life and fear, a dark reality. + +5. +While yet a boy I sought for ghosts, and sped +Through many a listening chamber, cave and ruin, _50 +And starlight wood, with fearful steps pursuing +Hopes of high talk with the departed dead. +I called on poisonous names with which our youth is fed; +I was not heard--I saw them not-- +When musing deeply on the lot _55 +Of life, at that sweet time when winds are wooing +All vital things that wake to bring +News of birds and blossoming,-- +Sudden, thy shadow fell on me; +I shrieked, and clasped my hands in ecstasy! _60 + +6. +I vowed that I would dedicate my powers +To thee and thine--have I not kept the vow? +With beating heart and streaming eyes, even now +I call the phantoms of a thousand hours +Each from his voiceless grave: they have in visioned bowers _65 +Of studious zeal or love's delight +Outwatched with me the envious night-- +They know that never joy illumed my brow +Unlinked with hope that thou wouldst free +This world from its dark slavery, _70 +That thou--O awful LOVELINESS, +Wouldst give whate'er these words cannot express. + +7. +The day becomes more solemn and serene +When noon is past--there is a harmony +In autumn, and a lustre in its sky, _75 +Which through the summer is not heard or seen, +As if it could not be, as if it had not been! +Thus let thy power, which like the truth +Of nature on my passive youth +Descended, to my onward life supply _80 +Its calm--to one who worships thee, +And every form containing thee, +Whom, SPIRIT fair, thy spells did bind +To fear himself, and love all human kind. + +NOTES: +_2 among 1819; amongst 1817. +_14 dost 1819; doth 1817. +_21 fear and dream 1819; care and pain Boscombe manuscript. +_37-_48 omitted Boscombe manuscript. +_44 art 1817; are 1819. +_76 or 1819; nor 1839. + +*** + + +MONT BLANC. + +LINES WRITTEN IN THE VALE OF CHAMOUNI. + +[Composed in Switzerland, July, 1816 (see date below). Printed at the +end of the "History of a Six Weeks' Tour" published by Shelley in 1817, +and reprinted with "Posthumous Poems", 1824. Amongst the Boscombe +manuscripts is a draft of this Ode, mainly in pencil, which has been +collated by Dr. Garnett.] + +1. +The everlasting universe of things +Flows through the mind, and rolls its rapid waves, +Now dark--now glittering--now reflecting gloom-- +Now lending splendour, where from secret springs +The source of human thought its tribute brings _5 +Of waters,--with a sound but half its own, +Such as a feeble brook will oft assume +In the wild woods, among the mountains lone, +Where waterfalls around it leap for ever, +Where woods and winds contend, and a vast river _10 +Over its rocks ceaselessly bursts and raves. + +2. +Thus thou, Ravine of Arve--dark, deep Ravine-- +Thou many-coloured, many-voiced vale, +Over whose pines, and crags, and caverns sail +Fast cloud-shadows and sunbeams: awful scene, _15 +Where Power in likeness of the Arve comes down +From the ice-gulfs that gird his secret throne, +Bursting through these dark mountains like the flame +Of lightning through the tempest;--thou dost lie, +Thy giant brood of pines around thee clinging, _20 +Children of elder time, in whose devotion +The chainless winds still come and ever came +To drink their odours, and their mighty swinging +To hear--an old and solemn harmony; +Thine earthly rainbows stretched across the sweep _25 +Of the ethereal waterfall, whose veil +Robes some unsculptured image; the strange sleep +Which when the voices of the desert fail +Wraps all in its own deep eternity;-- +Thy caverns echoing to the Arve's commotion, _30 +A loud, lone sound no other sound can tame; +Thou art pervaded with that ceaseless motion, +Thou art the path of that unresting sound-- +Dizzy Ravine! and when I gaze on thee +I seem as in a trance sublime and strange _35 +To muse on my own separate fantasy, +My own, my human mind, which passively +Now renders and receives fast influencings, +Holding an unremitting interchange +With the clear universe of things around; _40 +One legion of wild thoughts, whose wandering wings +Now float above thy darkness, and now rest +Where that or thou art no unbidden guest, +In the still cave of the witch Poesy, +Seeking among the shadows that pass by _45 +Ghosts of all things that are, some shade of thee, +Some phantom, some faint image; till the breast +From which they fled recalls them, thou art there! + +3. +Some say that gleams of a remoter world +Visit the soul in sleep,--that death is slumber, _50 +And that its shapes the busy thoughts outnumber +Of those who wake and live.--I look on high; +Has some unknown omnipotence unfurled +The veil of life and death? or do I lie +In dream, and does the mightier world of sleep _55 +Spread far around and inaccessibly +Its circles? For the very spirit fails, +Driven like a homeless cloud from steep to steep +That vanishes among the viewless gales! +Far, far above, piercing the infinite sky, _60 +Mont Blanc appears,--still, snowy, and serene-- +Its subject mountains their unearthly forms +Pile around it, ice and rock; broad vales between +Of frozen floods, unfathomable deeps, +Blue as the overhanging heaven, that spread _65 +And wind among the accumulated steeps; +A desert peopled by the storms alone, +Save when the eagle brings some hunter's bone, +And the wolf tracts her there--how hideously +Its shapes are heaped around! rude, bare, and high, _70 +Ghastly, and scarred, and riven.--Is this the scene +Where the old Earthquake-daemon taught her young +Ruin? Were these their toys? or did a sea +Of fire envelope once this silent snow? +None can reply--all seems eternal now. _75 +The wilderness has a mysterious tongue +Which teaches awful doubt, or faith so mild, +So solemn, so serene, that man may be, +But for such faith, with nature reconciled; +Thou hast a voice, great Mountain, to repeal _80 +Large codes of fraud and woe; not understood +By all, but which the wise, and great, and good +Interpret, or make felt, or deeply feel. + +4. +The fields, the lakes, the forests, and the streams, +Ocean, and all the living things that dwell _85 +Within the daedal earth; lightning, and rain, +Earthquake, and fiery flood, and hurricane, +The torpor of the year when feeble dreams +Visit the hidden buds, or dreamless sleep +Holds every future leaf and flower;--the bound _90 +With which from that detested trance they leap; +The works and ways of man, their death and birth, +And that of him and all that his may be; +All things that move and breathe with toil and sound +Are born and die; revolve, subside, and swell. _95 +Power dwells apart in its tranquillity, +Remote, serene, and inaccessible: +And THIS, the naked countenance of earth, +On which I gaze, even these primaeval mountains +Teach the adverting mind. The glaciers creep _100 +Like snakes that watch their prey, from their far fountains, +Slow rolling on; there, many a precipice, +Frost and the Sun in scorn of mortal power +Have piled: dome, pyramid, and pinnacle, +A city of death, distinct with many a tower _105 +And wall impregnable of beaming ice. +Yet not a city, but a flood of ruin +Is there, that from the boundaries of the sky +Rolls its perpetual stream; vast pines are strewing +Its destined path, or in the mangled soil _110 +Branchless and shattered stand; the rocks, drawn down +From yon remotest waste, have overthrown +The limits of the dead and living world, +Never to be reclaimed. The dwelling-place +Of insects, beasts, and birds, becomes its spoil; _115 +Their food and their retreat for ever gone, +So much of life and joy is lost. The race +Of man flies far in dread; his work and dwelling +Vanish, like smoke before the tempest's stream, +And their place is not known. Below, vast caves _120 +Shine in the rushing torrents' restless gleam, +Which from those secret chasms in tumult welling +Meet in the vale, and one majestic River, +The breath and blood of distant lands, for ever +Rolls its loud waters to the ocean waves, _125 +Breathes its swift vapours to the circling air. + +5. +Mont Blanc yet gleams on high--the power is there, +The still and solemn power of many sights, +And many sounds, and much of life and death. +In the calm darkness of the moonless nights, _130 +In the lone glare of day, the snows descend +Upon that Mountain; none beholds them there, +Nor when the flakes burn in the sinking sun, +Or the star-beams dart through them:--Winds contend +Silently there, and heap the snow with breath _135 +Rapid and strong, but silently! Its home +The voiceless lightning in these solitudes +Keeps innocently, and like vapour broods +Over the snow. The secret strength of things +Which governs thought, and to the infinite dome _140 +Of heaven is as a law, inhabits thee! +And what were thou, and earth, and stars, and sea, +If to the human mind's imaginings +Silence and solitude were vacancy? + +July 23, 1816. + +NOTES: +_15 cloud-shadows]cloud shadows 1817; + cloud, shadows 1824; clouds, shadows 1839. +_20 Thy 1824; The 1839. +_53 unfurled]upfurled cj. James Thomson ('B.V.'). +_56 Spread 1824; Speed 1839. +_69 tracks her there 1824; watches her Boscombe manuscript. +_79 But for such 1824; In such a Boscombe manuscript. +_108 boundaries of the sky]boundary of the skies cj. Rossetti + (cf. lines 102, 106). +_121 torrents']torrent's 1817, 1824, 1839. + +*** + + +CANCELLED PASSAGE OF MONT BLANC. + +[Published by Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +There is a voice, not understood by all, +Sent from these desert-caves. It is the roar +Of the rent ice-cliff which the sunbeams call, +Plunging into the vale--it is the blast +Descending on the pines--the torrents pour... _5 + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: HOME. + +[Published by Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +Dear home, thou scene of earliest hopes and joys, +The least of which wronged Memory ever makes +Bitterer than all thine unremembered tears. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT OF A GHOST STORY. + +[Published by Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +A shovel of his ashes took +From the hearth's obscurest nook, +Muttering mysteries as she went. +Helen and Henry knew that Granny +Was as much afraid of Ghosts as any, _5 +And so they followed hard-- +But Helen clung to her brother's arm, +And her own spasm made her shake. + +*** + + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1816, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +Shelley wrote little during this year. The poem entitled "The Sunset" +was written in the spring of the year, while still residing at +Bishopsgate. He spent the summer on the shores of the Lake of Geneva. +The "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty" was conceived during his voyage round +the lake with Lord Byron. He occupied himself during this voyage by +reading the "Nouvelle Heloise" for the first time. The reading it on +the very spot where the scenes are laid added to the interest; and he +was at once surprised and charmed by the passionate eloquence and +earnest enthralling interest that pervade this work. There was +something in the character of Saint-Preux, in his abnegation of self, +and in the worship he paid to Love, that coincided with Shelley's own +disposition; and, though differing in many of the views and shocked by +others, yet the effect of the whole was fascinating and delightful. + +"Mont Blanc" was inspired by a view of that mountain and its +surrounding peaks and valleys, as he lingered on the Bridge of Arve on +his way through the Valley of Chamouni. Shelley makes the following +mention of this poem in his publication of the "History of a Six Weeks' +Tour, and Letters from Switzerland": 'The poem entitled "Mont Blanc" is +written by the author of the two letters from Chamouni and Vevai. It +was composed under the immediate impression of the deep and powerful +feelings excited by the objects which it attempts to describe; and, as +an undisciplined overflowing of the soul, rests its claim to +approbation on an attempt to imitate the untamable wildness and +inaccessible solemnity from which those feelings sprang.' + +This was an eventful year, and less time was given to study than usual. +In the list of his reading I find, in Greek, Theocritus, the +"Prometheus" of Aeschylus, several of Plutarch's "Lives", and the works +of Lucian. In Latin, Lucretius, Pliny's "Letters", the "Annals" and +"Germany" of Tacitus. In French, the "History of the French Revolution" +by Lacretelle. He read for the first time, this year, Montaigne's +"Essays", and regarded them ever after as one of the most delightful +and instructive books in the world. The list is scanty in English +works: Locke's "Essay", "Political Justice", and Coleridge's "Lay +Sermon", form nearly the whole. It was his frequent habit to read aloud +to me in the evening; in this way we read, this year, the New +Testament, "Paradise Lost", Spenser's "Faery Queen", and "Don Quixote". + +*** + + +POEMS WRITTEN IN 1817. + + +MARIANNE'S DREAM. + +[Composed at Marlow, 1817. Published in Hunt's "Literary Pocket-Book", +1819, and reprinted in "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +1. +A pale Dream came to a Lady fair, +And said, A boon, a boon, I pray! +I know the secrets of the air, +And things are lost in the glare of day, +Which I can make the sleeping see, _5 +If they will put their trust in me. + +2. +And thou shalt know of things unknown, +If thou wilt let me rest between +The veiny lids, whose fringe is thrown +Over thine eyes so dark and sheen: _10 +And half in hope, and half in fright, +The Lady closed her eyes so bright. + +3. +At first all deadly shapes were driven +Tumultuously across her sleep, +And o'er the vast cope of bending heaven _15 +All ghastly-visaged clouds did sweep; +And the Lady ever looked to spy +If the golden sun shone forth on high. + +4. +And as towards the east she turned, +She saw aloft in the morning air, _20 +Which now with hues of sunrise burned, +A great black Anchor rising there; +And wherever the Lady turned her eyes, +It hung before her in the skies. + +5. +The sky was blue as the summer sea, _25 +The depths were cloudless overhead, +The air was calm as it could be, +There was no sight or sound of dread, +But that black Anchor floating still +Over the piny eastern hill. _30 + +6. +The Lady grew sick with a weight of fear +To see that Anchor ever hanging, +And veiled her eyes; she then did hear +The sound as of a dim low clanging, +And looked abroad if she might know _35 +Was it aught else, or but the flow +Of the blood in her own veins, to and fro. + +7. +There was a mist in the sunless air, +Which shook as it were with an earthquake's shock, +But the very weeds that blossomed there _40 +Were moveless, and each mighty rock +Stood on its basis steadfastly; +The Anchor was seen no more on high. + +8. +But piled around, with summits hid +In lines of cloud at intervals, _45 +Stood many a mountain pyramid +Among whose everlasting walls +Two mighty cities shone, and ever +Through the red mist their domes did quiver. + +9. +On two dread mountains, from whose crest, _50 +Might seem, the eagle, for her brood, +Would ne'er have hung her dizzy nest, +Those tower-encircled cities stood. +A vision strange such towers to see, +Sculptured and wrought so gorgeously, _55 +Where human art could never be. + +10. +And columns framed of marble white, +And giant fanes, dome over dome +Piled, and triumphant gates, all bright +With workmanship, which could not come _60 +From touch of mortal instrument, +Shot o'er the vales, or lustre lent +From its own shapes magnificent. + +11. +But still the Lady heard that clang +Filling the wide air far away; _65 +And still the mist whose light did hang +Among the mountains shook alway, +So that the Lady's heart beat fast, +As half in joy, and half aghast, +On those high domes her look she cast. _70 + +12. +Sudden, from out that city sprung +A light that made the earth grow red; +Two flames that each with quivering tongue +Licked its high domes, and overhead +Among those mighty towers and fanes _75 +Dropped fire, as a volcano rains +Its sulphurous ruin on the plains. + +13. +And hark! a rush as if the deep +Had burst its bonds; she looked behind +And saw over the western steep _80 +A raging flood descend, and wind +Through that wide vale; she felt no fear, +But said within herself, 'Tis clear +These towers are Nature's own, and she +To save them has sent forth the sea. _85 + +14. +And now those raging billows came +Where that fair Lady sate, and she +Was borne towards the showering flame +By the wild waves heaped tumultuously. +And, on a little plank, the flow _90 +Of the whirlpool bore her to and fro. + +15. +The flames were fiercely vomited +From every tower and every dome, +And dreary light did widely shed +O'er that vast flood's suspended foam, _95 +Beneath the smoke which hung its night +On the stained cope of heaven's light. + +16. +The plank whereon that Lady sate +Was driven through the chasms, about and about, +Between the peaks so desolate _100 +Of the drowning mountains, in and out, +As the thistle-beard on a whirlwind sails-- +While the flood was filling those hollow vales. + +17. +At last her plank an eddy crossed, +And bore her to the city's wall, _105 +Which now the flood had reached almost; +It might the stoutest heart appal +To hear the fire roar and hiss +Through the domes of those mighty palaces. + +18. +The eddy whirled her round and round _110 +Before a gorgeous gate, which stood +Piercing the clouds of smoke which bound +Its aery arch with light like blood; +She looked on that gate of marble clear, +With wonder that extinguished fear. _115 + +19. +For it was filled with sculptures rarest, +Of forms most beautiful and strange, +Like nothing human, but the fairest +Of winged shapes, whose legions range +Throughout the sleep of those that are, _120 +Like this same Lady, good and fair. + +20. +And as she looked, still lovelier grew +Those marble forms;--the sculptor sure +Was a strong spirit, and the hue +Of his own mind did there endure _125 +After the touch, whose power had braided +Such grace, was in some sad change faded. + +21. +She looked, the flames were dim, the flood +Grew tranquil as a woodland river +Winding through hills in solitude; _130 +Those marble shapes then seemed to quiver, +And their fair limbs to float in motion, +Like weeds unfolding in the ocean. + +22. +And their lips moved; one seemed to speak, +When suddenly the mountains cracked, _135 +And through the chasm the flood did break +With an earth-uplifting cataract: +The statues gave a joyous scream, +And on its wings the pale thin Dream +Lifted the Lady from the stream. _140 + +23. +The dizzy flight of that phantom pale +Waked the fair Lady from her sleep, +And she arose, while from the veil +Of her dark eyes the Dream did creep, +And she walked about as one who knew _145 +That sleep has sights as clear and true +As any waking eyes can view. + +NOTES: +_18 golden 1819; gold 1824, 1839. +_28 or 1824; nor 1839. +_62 or]a cj. Rossetti. +_63 its]their cj. Rossetti. +_92 flames cj. Rossetti; waves 1819, 1824, 1839. +_101 mountains 1819; mountain 1824, 1839. +_106 flood]flames cj. James Thomson ('B.V.'). +_120 that 1819, 1824; who 1839. +_135 mountains 1819; mountain 1824, 1839. + +*** + + +TO CONSTANTIA, SINGING. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley in "Posthumous Poems", 1824. Amongst the +Shelley manuscripts at the Bodleian is a chaotic first draft, from +which Mr. Locock ["Examination", etc., 1903, pages 60-62] has, with +patient ingenuity, disengaged a first and a second stanza consistent +with the metrical scheme of stanzas 3 and 4. The two stanzas thus +recovered are printed here immediately below the poem as edited by Mrs. +Shelley. It need hardly be added that Mr. Locock's restored version +cannot, any more than Mrs. Shelley's obviously imperfect one, be +regarded in the light of a final recension.] + +1. +Thus to be lost and thus to sink and die, +Perchance were death indeed!--Constantia, turn! +In thy dark eyes a power like light doth lie, +Even though the sounds which were thy voice, which burn +Between thy lips, are laid to sleep; _5 +Within thy breath, and on thy hair, like odour, it is yet, +And from thy touch like fire doth leap. +Even while I write, my burning cheeks are wet. +Alas, that the torn heart can bleed, but not forget! + +2. +A breathless awe, like the swift change _10 +Unseen, but felt in youthful slumbers, +Wild, sweet, but uncommunicably strange, +Thou breathest now in fast ascending numbers. +The cope of heaven seems rent and cloven +By the enchantment of thy strain, _15 +And on my shoulders wings are woven, +To follow its sublime career +Beyond the mighty moons that wane +Upon the verge of Nature's utmost sphere, +Till the world's shadowy walls are past and disappear. _20 + +3. +Her voice is hovering o'er my soul--it lingers +O'ershadowing it with soft and lulling wings, +The blood and life within those snowy fingers +Teach witchcraft to the instrumental strings. +My brain is wild, my breath comes quick-- _25 +The blood is listening in my frame, +And thronging shadows, fast and thick, +Fall on my overflowing eyes; +My heart is quivering like a flame; +As morning dew, that in the sunbeam dies, _30 +I am dissolved in these consuming ecstasies. + +4. +I have no life, Constantia, now, but thee, +Whilst, like the world-surrounding air, thy song +Flows on, and fills all things with melody.-- +Now is thy voice a tempest swift and strong, _35 +On which, like one in trance upborne, +Secure o'er rocks and waves I sweep, +Rejoicing like a cloud of morn. +Now 'tis the breath of summer night, +Which when the starry waters sleep, +Round western isles, with incense-blossoms bright, _40 +Lingering, suspends my soul in its voluptuous flight. + + +STANZAS 1 AND 2. + +As restored by Mr. C.D. Locock. + +1. +Cease, cease--for such wild lessons madmen learn +Thus to be lost, and thus to sink and die +Perchance were death indeed!--Constantia turn +In thy dark eyes a power like light doth lie +Even though the sounds its voice that were _5 +Between [thy] lips are laid to sleep: +Within thy breath, and on thy hair +Like odour, it is [lingering] yet +And from thy touch like fire doth leap-- +Even while I write, my burning cheeks are wet-- _10 +Alas, that the torn heart can bleed but not forget. + +2. +[A deep and] breathless awe like the swift change +Of dreams unseen but felt in youthful slumbers +Wild sweet yet incommunicably strange +Thou breathest now in fast ascending numbers... _15 + +*** + + +TO CONSTANTIA. +[Dated 1817 by Mrs. Shelley, and printed by her in the "Poetical +Works", 1839, 1st edition. A copy exists amongst the Shelley +manuscripts at the Bodleian. See Mr. C.D. Locock's "Examination", etc., +1903, page 46.] + +1. +The rose that drinks the fountain dew +In the pleasant air of noon, +Grows pale and blue with altered hue-- +In the gaze of the nightly moon; +For the planet of frost, so cold and bright, _5 +Makes it wan with her borrowed light. + +2. +Such is my heart--roses are fair, +And that at best a withered blossom; +But thy false care did idly wear +Its withered leaves in a faithless bosom; _10 +And fed with love, like air and dew, +Its growth-- + +NOTES: +_1 The rose]The red Rose B. +_2 pleasant]fragrant B. +_6 her omitted B. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: TO ONE SINGING. + +[Dated 1817 by Mrs. Shelley, and published in the "Poetical Works", +1839, 1st edition. The manuscript original, by which Mr. Locock has +revised and (by one line) enlarged the text, is amongst the Shelley +manuscripts at the Bodleian. The metre, as Mr. Locock ("Examination", +etc., 1903, page 63) points out, is terza rima.] + +My spirit like a charmed bark doth swim +Upon the liquid waves of thy sweet singing, +Far far away into the regions dim + +Of rapture--as a boat, with swift sails winging +Its way adown some many-winding river, _5 +Speeds through dark forests o'er the waters swinging... + +NOTES: +_3 Far far away B.; Far away 1839. +_6 Speeds...swinging B.; omitted 1839. + +*** + + +A FRAGMENT: TO MUSIC. + +[Published in "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition. +Dated 1817 (Mrs. Shelley).] + +Silver key of the fountain of tears, +Where the spirit drinks till the brain is wild; +Softest grave of a thousand fears, +Where their mother, Care, like a drowsy child, +Is laid asleep in flowers. _5 + +*** + + +ANOTHER FRAGMENT: TO MUSIC. + +[Published in "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition. +Dated 1817 (Mrs. Shelley).] + +No, Music, thou art not the 'food of Love.' +Unless Love feeds upon its own sweet self, +Till it becomes all Music murmurs of. + +*** + + +'MIGHTY EAGLE'. + +SUPPOSED TO BE ADDRESSED TO WILLIAM GODWIN. + +[Published in 1882 ("Poetical Works of P. B. S.") by Mr. H. Buxton +Forman, C.B., by whom it is dated 1817.] + +Mighty eagle! thou that soarest +O'er the misty mountain forest, +And amid the light of morning +Like a cloud of glory hiest, +And when night descends defiest _5 +The embattled tempests' warning! + +*** + + +TO THE LORD CHANCELLOR. + +[Published in part (5-9, 14) by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, +1st edition (without title); in full 2nd edition (with title). Four +transcripts in Mrs. Shelley's hand are extant: two--Leigh Hunt's and +Ch. Cowden Clarke's--described by Forman, and two belonging to Mr. C.W. +Frederickson of Brooklyn, described by Woodberry ["Poetical Works", +Centenary Edition, 3 193-6]. One of the latter (here referred to as Fa) +is corrected in Shelley's autograph. A much-corrected draft in +Shelley's hand is in the Harvard manuscript book.] + +1. +Thy country's curse is on thee, darkest crest +Of that foul, knotted, many-headed worm +Which rends our Mother's bosom--Priestly Pest! +Masked Resurrection of a buried Form! + +2. +Thy country's curse is on thee! Justice sold, _5 +Truth trampled, Nature's landmarks overthrown, +And heaps of fraud-accumulated gold, +Plead, loud as thunder, at Destruction's throne. + +3. +And whilst that sure slow Angel which aye stands +Watching the beck of Mutability _10 +Delays to execute her high commands, +And, though a nation weeps, spares thine and thee, + +4. +Oh, let a father's curse be on thy soul, +And let a daughter's hope be on thy tomb; +Be both, on thy gray head, a leaden cowl _15 +To weigh thee down to thine approaching doom. + +5. +I curse thee by a parent's outraged love, +By hopes long cherished and too lately lost, +By gentle feelings thou couldst never prove, +By griefs which thy stern nature never crossed; _20 + +6. +By those infantine smiles of happy light, +Which were a fire within a stranger's hearth, +Quenched even when kindled, in untimely night +Hiding the promise of a lovely birth: + +7. +By those unpractised accents of young speech, _25 +Which he who is a father thought to frame +To gentlest lore, such as the wisest teach-- +THOU strike the lyre of mind!--oh, grief and shame! + +8. +By all the happy see in children's growth-- +That undeveloped flower of budding years-- _30 +Sweetness and sadness interwoven both, +Source of the sweetest hopes and saddest fears- + +9. +By all the days, under an hireling's care, +Of dull constraint and bitter heaviness,-- +O wretched ye if ever any were,-- _35 +Sadder than orphans, yet not fatherless! + +10. +By the false cant which on their innocent lips +Must hang like poison on an opening bloom, +By the dark creeds which cover with eclipse +Their pathway from the cradle to the tomb-- _40 + +11. +By thy most impious Hell, and all its terror; +By all the grief, the madness, and the guilt +Of thine impostures, which must be their error-- +That sand on which thy crumbling power is built-- + +12. +By thy complicity with lust and hate-- _45 +Thy thirst for tears--thy hunger after gold-- +The ready frauds which ever on thee wait-- +The servile arts in which thou hast grown old-- + +13. +By thy most killing sneer, and by thy smile-- +By all the arts and snares of thy black den, _50 +And--for thou canst outweep the crocodile-- +By thy false tears--those millstones braining men-- + +14. +By all the hate which checks a father's love-- +By all the scorn which kills a father's care-- +By those most impious hands which dared remove _55 +Nature's high bounds--by thee--and by despair-- + +15. +Yes, the despair which bids a father groan, +And cry, 'My children are no longer mine-- +The blood within those veins may be mine own, +But--Tyrant--their polluted souls are thine;-- _60 + +16. +I curse thee--though I hate thee not.--O slave! +If thou couldst quench the earth-consuming Hell +Of which thou art a daemon, on thy grave +This curse should be a blessing. Fare thee well! + +NOTES: +_9 Angel which aye cancelled by Shelley for Fate which ever Fa. +_24 promise of a 1839, 2nd edition; promises of 1839, 1st edition. +_27 lore]love Fa. +_32 and saddest]the saddest Fa. +_36 yet not fatherless! cancelled by Shelley for why not fatherless? Fa. +_41-_44 By...built 'crossed by Shelley and marked dele by Mrs. Shelley' + (Woodberry) Fa. +_50 arts and snares 1839, 1st edition; + snares and arts Harvard Coll. manuscript; + snares and nets Fa.; + acts and snares 1839, 2nd edition. +_59 those]their Fa. + +*** + + +TO WILLIAM SHELLEY. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley (1, 5, 6), "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st +edition; in full, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition. A transcript is +extant in Mrs. Shelley's hand.] + +1. +The billows on the beach are leaping around it, +The bark is weak and frail, +The sea looks black, and the clouds that bound it +Darkly strew the gale. +Come with me, thou delightful child, +Come with me, though the wave is wild, _5 +And the winds are loose, we must not stay, +Or the slaves of the law may rend thee away. + +2. +They have taken thy brother and sister dear, +They have made them unfit for thee; _10 +They have withered the smile and dried the tear +Which should have been sacred to me. +To a blighting faith and a cause of crime +They have bound them slaves in youthly prime, +And they will curse my name and thee _15 +Because we fearless are and free. + +3. +Come thou, beloved as thou art; +Another sleepeth still +Near thy sweet mother's anxious heart, +Which thou with joy shalt fill, _20 +With fairest smiles of wonder thrown +On that which is indeed our own, +And which in distant lands will be +The dearest playmate unto thee. + +4. +Fear not the tyrants will rule for ever, _25 +Or the priests of the evil faith; +They stand on the brink of that raging river, +Whose waves they have tainted with death. +It is fed from the depth of a thousand dells, +Around them it foams and rages and swells; _30 +And their swords and their sceptres I floating see, +Like wrecks on the surge of eternity. + +5. +Rest, rest, and shriek not, thou gentle child! +The rocking of the boat thou fearest, +And the cold spray and the clamour wild?-- _35 +There, sit between us two, thou dearest-- +Me and thy mother--well we know +The storm at which thou tremblest so, +With all its dark and hungry graves, +Less cruel than the savage slaves _40 +Who hunt us o'er these sheltering waves. + +6. +This hour will in thy memory +Be a dream of days forgotten long. +We soon shall dwell by the azure sea +Of serene and golden Italy, +Or Greece, the Mother of the free; _45 +And I will teach thine infant tongue +To call upon those heroes old +In their own language, and will mould +Thy growing spirit in the flame +Of Grecian lore, that by such name _50 +A patriot's birthright thou mayst claim! + +NOTES: +_1 on the beach omitted 1839, 1st edition. +_8 of the law 1839, 1st edition; of law 1839, 2nd edition. +_14 prime transcript; time editions 1839. +_16 fearless are editions 1839; are fearless transcript. +_20 shalt transcript; wilt editions 1839. +_25-_32 Fear...eternity omitted, transcript. + See "Rosalind and Helen", lines 894-901. +_33 and transcript; omitted editions 1839. +_41 us transcript, 1839, 1st edition; thee 1839, 2nd edition. +_42 will in transcript, 1839, 2nd edition; + will sometime in 1839, 1st edition. +_43 long transcript; omitted editions 1839. +_48 those transcript, 1839, 1st edition; their 1839, 2nd edition. + +*** + + +FROM THE ORIGINAL DRAFT OF THE POEM TO WILLIAM SHELLEY. + +[Published in Dr. Garnett's "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +1. +The world is now our dwelling-place; +Where'er the earth one fading trace +Of what was great and free does keep, +That is our home!... +Mild thoughts of man's ungentle race _5 +Shall our contented exile reap; +For who that in some happy place +His own free thoughts can freely chase +By woods and waves can clothe his face +In cynic smiles? Child! we shall weep. _10 + +2. +This lament, +The memory of thy grievous wrong +Will fade... +But genius is omnipotent +To hallow... _15 + +*** + + +ON FANNY GODWIN. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, among the poems of 1817, in "Poetical +Works", 1839, 1st edition.] + +Her voice did quiver as we parted, +Yet knew I not that heart was broken +From which it came, and I departed +Heeding not the words then spoken. +Misery--O Misery, _5 +This world is all too wide for thee. + +*** + + +LINES. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley with the date 'November 5th, 1817,' in +"Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +1. +That time is dead for ever, child! +Drowned, frozen, dead for ever! +We look on the past +And stare aghast +At the spectres wailing, pale and ghast, _5 +Of hopes which thou and I beguiled +To death on life's dark river. + +2. +The stream we gazed on then rolled by; +Its waves are unreturning; +But we yet stand _10 +In a lone land, +Like tombs to mark the memory +Of hopes and fears, which fade and flee +In the light of life's dim morning. + +*** + + +DEATH. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley in "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +1. +They die--the dead return not--Misery +Sits near an open grave and calls them over, +A Youth with hoary hair and haggard eye-- +They are the names of kindred, friend and lover, +Which he so feebly calls--they all are gone-- _5 +Fond wretch, all dead! those vacant names alone, +This most familiar scene, my pain-- +These tombs--alone remain. + +2. +Misery, my sweetest friend--oh, weep no more! +Thou wilt not be consoled--I wonder not! _10 +For I have seen thee from thy dwelling's door +Watch the calm sunset with them, and this spot +Was even as bright and calm, but transitory, +And now thy hopes are gone, thy hair is hoary; +This most familiar scene, my pain-- _15 +These tombs--alone remain. + +NOTE: +_5 calls editions 1839; called 1824. + +*** + + +OTHO. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.] + +1. +Thou wert not, Cassius, and thou couldst not be, +Last of the Romans, though thy memory claim +From Brutus his own glory--and on thee +Rests the full splendour of his sacred fame: +Nor he who dared make the foul tyrant quail _5 +Amid his cowering senate with thy name, +Though thou and he were great--it will avail +To thine own fame that Otho's should not fail. + +2. +'Twill wrong thee not--thou wouldst, if thou couldst feel, +Abjure such envious fame--great Otho died _10 +Like thee--he sanctified his country's steel, +At once the tyrant and tyrannicide, +In his own blood--a deed it was to bring +Tears from all men--though full of gentle pride, +Such pride as from impetuous love may spring, _15 +That will not be refused its offering. + +NOTE: +_13 bring cj. Garnett; buy 1839, 1st edition; wring cj. Rossetti. + +*** + + +FRAGMENTS SUPPOSED TO BE PARTS OF OTHO. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862,--where, however, +only the fragment numbered 2 is assigned to "Otho". Forman (1876) +connects all three fragments with that projected poem.] + +1. +Those whom nor power, nor lying faith, nor toil, +Nor custom, queen of many slaves, makes blind, +Have ever grieved that man should be the spoil +Of his own weakness, and with earnest mind +Fed hopes of its redemption; these recur _5 +Chastened by deathful victory now, and find +Foundations in this foulest age, and stir +Me whom they cheer to be their minister. + +2. +Dark is the realm of grief: but human things +Those may not know who cannot weep for them. _10 + +... + +3. +Once more descend +The shadows of my soul upon mankind, +For to those hearts with which they never blend, +Thoughts are but shadows which the flashing mind +From the swift clouds which track its flight of fire, _15 +Casts on the gloomy world it leaves behind. + +... + +*** + + +'O THAT A CHARIOT OF CLOUD WERE MINE'. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +O that a chariot of cloud were mine! +Of cloud which the wild tempest weaves in air, +When the moon over the ocean's line +Is spreading the locks of her bright gray hair. +O that a chariot of cloud were mine! _5 +I would sail on the waves of the billowy wind +To the mountain peak and the rocky lake, +And the... + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: TO A FRIEND RELEASED FROM PRISON. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +For me, my friend, if not that tears did tremble +In my faint eyes, and that my heart beat fast +With feelings which make rapture pain resemble, +Yet, from thy voice that falsehood starts aghast, +I thank thee--let the tyrant keep _5 +His chains and tears, yea, let him weep +With rage to see thee freshly risen, +Like strength from slumber, from the prison, +In which he vainly hoped the soul to bind +Which on the chains must prey that fetter humankind. _10 + +NOTE: +For the metre see Fragment: "A Gentle Story" (A.C. Bradley.) + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: SATAN BROKEN LOOSE. + +[Published by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870.] + +A golden-winged Angel stood +Before the Eternal Judgement-seat: +His looks were wild, and Devils' blood +Stained his dainty hands and feet. +The Father and the Son _5 +Knew that strife was now begun. +They knew that Satan had broken his chain, +And with millions of daemons in his train, +Was ranging over the world again. +Before the Angel had told his tale, _10 +A sweet and a creeping sound +Like the rushing of wings was heard around; +And suddenly the lamps grew pale-- +The lamps, before the Archangels seven, +That burn continually in Heaven. _15 + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: "IGNICULUS DESIDERII". + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition. This +fragment is amongst the Shelley manuscripts at the Bodleian. See Mr. +C.D. Locock's "Examination", etc., 1903, page 63.] + +To thirst and find no fill--to wail and wander +With short unsteady steps--to pause and ponder-- +To feel the blood run through the veins and tingle +Where busy thought and blind sensation mingle; +To nurse the image of unfelt caresses _5 +Till dim imagination just possesses +The half-created shadow, then all the night +Sick... + +NOTES: +_2 unsteady B.; uneasy 1839, 1st edition. +_7, _8 then...Sick B.; wanting, 1839, 1st edition. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: "AMOR AETERNUS". + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.] + +Wealth and dominion fade into the mass +Of the great sea of human right and wrong, +When once from our possession they must pass; +But love, though misdirected, is among +The things which are immortal, and surpass _5 +All that frail stuff which will be--or which was. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: THOUGHTS COME AND GO IN SOLITUDE. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.] + +My thoughts arise and fade in solitude, +The verse that would invest them melts away +Like moonlight in the heaven of spreading day: +How beautiful they were, how firm they stood, +Flecking the starry sky like woven pearl! _5 + +*** + + +A HATE-SONG. + +[Published by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870.] + +A hater he came and sat by a ditch, +And he took an old cracked lute; +And he sang a song which was more of a screech +'Gainst a woman that was a brute. + +*** + + +LINES TO A CRITIC. + +[Published by Hunt in "The Liberal", No. 3, 1823. Reprinted in +"Posthumous Poems", 1824, where it is dated December, 1817.] + +1. +Honey from silkworms who can gather, +Or silk from the yellow bee? +The grass may grow in winter weather +As soon as hate in me. + +2. +Hate men who cant, and men who pray, _5 +And men who rail like thee; +An equal passion to repay +They are not coy like me. + +3. +Or seek some slave of power and gold +To be thy dear heart's mate; _10 +Thy love will move that bigot cold +Sooner than me, thy hate. + +4. +A passion like the one I prove +Cannot divided be; +I hate thy want of truth and love-- _15 +How should I then hate thee? + +*** + + +OZYMANDIAS. + +[Published by Hunt in "The Examiner", January, 1818. Reprinted with +"Rosalind and Helen", 1819. There is a copy amongst the Shelley +manuscripts at the Bodleian Library. See Mr. C.D. Locock's +"Examination", etc., 1903, page 46.] + +I met a traveller from an antique land +Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone +Stand in the desert...Near them, on the sand, +Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, +And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, _5 +Tell that its sculptor well those passions read +Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, +The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed: +And on the pedestal these words appear: +'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: _10 +Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!' +Nothing beside remains. Round the decay +Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare +The lone and level sands stretch far away. + +NOTE: +_9 these words appear]this legend clear B. + +*** + + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1817, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +The very illness that oppressed, and the aspect of death which had +approached so near Shelley, appear to have kindled to yet keener life +the Spirit of Poetry in his heart. The restless thoughts kept awake by +pain clothed themselves in verse. Much was composed during this year. +The "Revolt of Islam", written and printed, was a great +effort--"Rosalind and Helen" was begun--and the fragments and poems I +can trace to the same period show how full of passion and reflection +were his solitary hours. + +In addition to such poems as have an intelligible aim and shape, many a +stray idea and transitory emotion found imperfect and abrupt +expression, and then again lost themselves in silence. As he never +wandered without a book and without implements of writing, I find many +such, in his manuscript books, that scarcely bear record; while some of +them, broken and vague as they are, will appear valuable to those who +love Shelley's mind, and desire to trace its workings. + +He projected also translating the "Hymns" of Homer; his version of +several of the shorter ones remains, as well as that to Mercury already +published in the "Posthumous Poems". His readings this year were +chiefly Greek. Besides the "Hymns" of Homer and the "Iliad", he read +the dramas of Aeschylus and Sophocles, the "Symposium" of Plato, and +Arrian's "Historia Indica". In Latin, Apuleius alone is named. In +English, the Bible was his constant study; he read a great portion of +it aloud in the evening. Among these evening readings I find also +mentioned the "Faerie Queen"; and other modern works, the production of +his contemporaries, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Moore and Byron. + +His life was now spent more in thought than action--he had lost the +eager spirit which believed it could achieve what it projected for the +benefit of mankind. And yet in the converse of daily life Shelley was +far from being a melancholy man. He was eloquent when philosophy or +politics or taste were the subjects of conversation. He was playful; +and indulged in the wild spirit that mocked itself and others--not in +bitterness, but in sport. The author of "Nightmare Abbey" seized on +some points of his character and some habits of his life when he +painted Scythrop. He was not addicted to 'port or madeira,' but in +youth he had read of 'Illuminati and Eleutherarchs,' and believed that +he possessed the power of operating an immediate change in the minds of +men and the state of society. These wild dreams had faded; sorrow and +adversity had struck home; but he struggled with despondency as he did +with physical pain. There are few who remember him sailing paper boats, +and watching the navigation of his tiny craft with eagerness--or +repeating with wild energy "The Ancient Mariner", and Southey's "Old +Woman of Berkeley"; but those who do will recollect that it was in +such, and in the creations of his own fancy when that was most daring +and ideal, that he sheltered himself from the storms and +disappointments, the pain and sorrow, that beset his life. + +No words can express the anguish he felt when his elder children were +torn from him. In his first resentment against the Chancellor, on the +passing of the decree, he had written a curse, in which there breathes, +besides haughty indignation, all the tenderness of a father's love, +which could imagine and fondly dwell upon its loss and the +consequences. + +At one time, while the question was still pending, the Chancellor had +said some words that seemed to intimate that Shelley should not be +permitted the care of any of his children, and for a moment he feared +that our infant son would be torn from us. He did not hesitate to +resolve, if such were menaced, to abandon country, fortune, everything, +and to escape with his child; and I find some unfinished stanzas +addressed to this son, whom afterwards we lost at Rome, written under +the idea that we might suddenly be forced to cross the sea, so to +preserve him. This poem, as well as the one previously quoted, were not +written to exhibit the pangs of distress to the public; they were the +spontaneous outbursts of a man who brooded over his wrongs and woes, +and was impelled to shed the grace of his genius over the +uncontrollable emotions of his heart. I ought to observe that the +fourth verse of this effusion is introduced in "Rosalind and Helen". +When afterwards this child died at Rome, he wrote, a propos of the +English burying-ground in that city: 'This spot is the repository of a +sacred loss, of which the yearnings of a parent's heart are now +prophetic; he is rendered immortal by love, as his memory is by death. +My beloved child lies buried here. I envy death the body far less than +the oppressors the minds of those whom they have torn from me. The one +can only kill the body, the other crushes the affections.' + +*** + + +POEMS WRITTEN IN 1818. + + +TO THE NILE. + +['Found by Mr. Townshend Meyer among the papers of Leigh Hunt, [and] +published in the "St. James's Magazine" for March, 1876.' (Mr. H. +Buxton Forman, C.B.; "Poetical Works of P. B. S.", Library Edition, +1876, volume 3 page 410.) First included among Shelley's poetical works +in Mr. Forman's Library Edition, where a facsimile of the manuscript is +given. Composed February 4, 1818. See "Complete Works of John Keats", +edition H. Buxton Forman, Glasgow, 1901, volume 4 page 76.] + +Month after month the gathered rains descend +Drenching yon secret Aethiopian dells, +And from the desert's ice-girt pinnacles +Where Frost and Heat in strange embraces blend +On Atlas, fields of moist snow half depend. _5 +Girt there with blasts and meteors Tempest dwells +By Nile's aereal urn, with rapid spells +Urging those waters to their mighty end. +O'er Egypt's land of Memory floods are level +And they are thine, O Nile--and well thou knowest _10 +That soul-sustaining airs and blasts of evil +And fruits and poisons spring where'er thou flowest. +Beware, O Man--for knowledge must to thee, +Like the great flood to Egypt, ever be. + +*** + + +PASSAGE OF THE APENNINES. + +[Composed May 4, 1818. Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", +1824. There is a copy amongst the Shelley manuscripts at the Bodleian +Library, which supplies the last word of the fragment.] + +Listen, listen, Mary mine, +To the whisper of the Apennine, +It bursts on the roof like the thunder's roar, +Or like the sea on a northern shore, +Heard in its raging ebb and flow _5 +By the captives pent in the cave below. +The Apennine in the light of day +Is a mighty mountain dim and gray, +Which between the earth and sky doth lay; +But when night comes, a chaos dread _10 +On the dim starlight then is spread, +And the Apennine walks abroad with the storm, +Shrouding... + +*** + + +THE PAST. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +1. +Wilt thou forget the happy hours +Which we buried in Love's sweet bowers, +Heaping over their corpses cold +Blossoms and leaves, instead of mould? +Blossoms which were the joys that fell, _5 +And leaves, the hopes that yet remain. + +2. +Forget the dead, the past? Oh, yet +There are ghosts that may take revenge for it, +Memories that make the heart a tomb, +Regrets which glide through the spirit's gloom, _10 +And with ghastly whispers tell +That joy, once lost, is pain. + +*** + + +TO MARY --. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +O Mary dear, that you were here +With your brown eyes bright and clear. +And your sweet voice, like a bird +Singing love to its lone mate +In the ivy bower disconsolate; _5 +Voice the sweetest ever heard! +And your brow more... +Than the ... sky +Of this azure Italy. +Mary dear, come to me soon, _10 +I am not well whilst thou art far; +As sunset to the sphered moon, +As twilight to the western star, +Thou, beloved, art to me. + +O Mary dear, that you were here; _15 +The Castle echo whispers 'Here!' + +*** + + +ON A FADED VIOLET. + +[Published by Hunt, "Literary Pocket-Book", 1821. Reprinted by Mrs. +Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824. Again reprinted, with several +variants, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition. Our text is that of the +editio princeps, 1821. A transcript is extant in a letter from Shelley +to Sophia Stacey, dated March 7, 1820.] + +1. +The odour from the flower is gone +Which like thy kisses breathed on me; +The colour from the flower is flown +Which glowed of thee and only thee! + +2. +A shrivelled, lifeless, vacant form, _5 +It lies on my abandoned breast, +And mocks the heart which yet is warm, +With cold and silent rest. + +3. +I weep,--my tears revive it not! +I sigh,--it breathes no more on me; _10 +Its mute and uncomplaining lot +Is such as mine should be. + +NOTES: +_1 odour]colour 1839. +_2 kisses breathed]sweet eyes smiled 1839. +_3 colour]odour 1839. +_4 glowed]breathed 1839. +_5 shrivelled]withered 1839. +_8 cold and silent all editions; its cold, silent Stacey manuscript. + +*** + + +LINES WRITTEN AMONG THE EUGANEAN HILLS. + +OCTOBER, 1818. + +[Composed at Este, October, 1818. Published with "Rosalind and Helen", +1819. Amongst the late Mr. Fredk. Locker-Lampson's collections at +Rowfant there is a manuscript of the lines (167-205) on Byron, +interpolated after the completion of the poem.] + +Many a green isle needs must be +In the deep wide sea of Misery, +Or the mariner, worn and wan, +Never thus could voyage on-- +Day and night, and night and day, _5 +Drifting on his dreary way, +With the solid darkness black +Closing round his vessel's track: +Whilst above the sunless sky, +Big with clouds, hangs heavily, _10 +And behind the tempest fleet +Hurries on with lightning feet, +Riving sail, and cord, and plank, +Till the ship has almost drank +Death from the o'er-brimming deep; _15 +And sinks down, down, like that sleep +When the dreamer seems to be +Weltering through eternity; +And the dim low line before +Of a dark and distant shore _20 +Still recedes, as ever still +Longing with divided will, +But no power to seek or shun, +He is ever drifted on +O'er the unreposing wave _25 +To the haven of the grave. +What, if there no friends will greet; +What, if there no heart will meet +His with love's impatient beat; +Wander wheresoe'er he may, _30 +Can he dream before that day +To find refuge from distress +In friendship's smile, in love's caress? +Then 'twill wreak him little woe +Whether such there be or no: _35 +Senseless is the breast, and cold, +Which relenting love would fold; +Bloodless are the veins and chill +Which the pulse of pain did fill; +Every little living nerve _40 +That from bitter words did swerve +Round the tortured lips and brow, +Are like sapless leaflets now +Frozen upon December's bough. + +On the beach of a northern sea _45 +Which tempests shake eternally, +As once the wretch there lay to sleep, +Lies a solitary heap, +One white skull and seven dry bones, +On the margin of the stones, _50 +Where a few gray rushes stand, +Boundaries of the sea and land: +Nor is heard one voice of wail +But the sea-mews, as they sail +O'er the billows of the gale; _55 +Or the whirlwind up and down +Howling, like a slaughtered town, +When a king in glory rides +Through the pomp of fratricides: +Those unburied bones around _60 +There is many a mournful sound; +There is no lament for him, +Like a sunless vapour, dim, +Who once clothed with life and thought +What now moves nor murmurs not. _65 + +Ay, many flowering islands lie +In the waters of wide Agony: +To such a one this morn was led, +My bark by soft winds piloted: +'Mid the mountains Euganean _70 +I stood listening to the paean +With which the legioned rooks did hail +The sun's uprise majestical; +Gathering round with wings all hoar, +Through the dewy mist they soar _75 +Like gray shades, till the eastern heaven +Bursts, and then, as clouds of even, +Flecked with fire and azure, lie +In the unfathomable sky, +So their plumes of purple grain, _80 +Starred with drops of golden rain, +Gleam above the sunlight woods, +As in silent multitudes +On the morning's fitful gale +Through the broken mist they sail, _85 +And the vapours cloven and gleaming +Follow, down the dark steep streaming, +Till all is bright, and clear, and still, +Round the solitary hill. + +Beneath is spread like a green sea _90 +The waveless plain of Lombardy, +Bounded by the vaporous air, +Islanded by cities fair; +Underneath Day's azure eyes +Ocean's nursling, Venice lies, _95 +A peopled labyrinth of walls, +Amphitrite's destined halls, +Which her hoary sire now paves +With his blue and beaming waves. +Lo! the sun upsprings behind, _100 +Broad, red, radiant, half-reclined +On the level quivering line +Of the waters crystalline; +And before that chasm of light, +As within a furnace bright, _105 +Column, tower, and dome, and spire, +Shine like obelisks of fire, +Pointing with inconstant motion +From the altar of dark ocean +To the sapphire-tinted skies; _110 +As the flames of sacrifice +From the marble shrines did rise, +As to pierce the dome of gold +Where Apollo spoke of old. + +Sun-girt City, thou hast been _115 +Ocean's child, and then his queen; +Now is come a darker day, +And thou soon must be his prey, +If the power that raised thee here +Hallow so thy watery bier. _120 +A less drear ruin then than now, +With thy conquest-branded brow +Stooping to the slave of slaves +From thy throne, among the waves +Wilt thou be, when the sea-mew _125 +Flies, as once before it flew, +O'er thine isles depopulate, +And all is in its ancient state, +Save where many a palace gate _130 +With green sea-flowers overgrown +Like a rock of Ocean's own, +Topples o'er the abandoned sea +As the tides change sullenly. +The fisher on his watery way, +Wandering at the close of day, _135 +Will spread his sail and seize his oar +Till he pass the gloomy shore, +Lest thy dead should, from their sleep +Bursting o'er the starlight deep, +Lead a rapid masque of death _140 +O'er the waters of his path. + +Those who alone thy towers behold +Quivering through aereal gold, +As I now behold them here, +Would imagine not they were _145 +Sepulchres, where human forms, +Like pollution-nourished worms, +To the corpse of greatness cling, +Murdered, and now mouldering: +But if Freedom should awake _150 +In her omnipotence, and shake +From the Celtic Anarch's hold +All the keys of dungeons cold, +Where a hundred cities lie +Chained like thee, ingloriously, _155 +Thou and all thy sister band +Might adorn this sunny land, +Twining memories of old time +With new virtues more sublime; +If not, perish thou and they!-- _160 +Clouds which stain truth's rising day +By her sun consumed away-- +Earth can spare ye: while like flowers, +In the waste of years and hours, +From your dust new nations spring _165 +With more kindly blossoming. + +Perish--let there only be +Floating o'er thy hearthless sea +As the garment of thy sky +Clothes the world immortally, _170 +One remembrance, more sublime +Than the tattered pall of time, +Which scarce hides thy visage wan;-- +That a tempest-cleaving Swan +Of the songs of Albion, _175 +Driven from his ancestral streams +By the might of evil dreams, +Found a nest in thee; and Ocean +Welcomed him with such emotion +That its joy grew his, and sprung _180 +From his lips like music flung +O'er a mighty thunder-fit, +Chastening terror:--what though yet +Poesy's unfailing River, +Which through Albion winds forever _185 +Lashing with melodious wave +Many a sacred Poet's grave, +Mourn its latest nursling fled? +What though thou with all thy dead +Scarce can for this fame repay _190 +Aught thine own? oh, rather say +Though thy sins and slaveries foul +Overcloud a sunlike soul? +As the ghost of Homer clings +Round Scamander's wasting springs; _195 +As divinest Shakespeare's might +Fills Avon and the world with light +Like omniscient power which he +Imaged 'mid mortality; +As the love from Petrarch's urn, _200 +Yet amid yon hills doth burn, +A quenchless lamp by which the heart +Sees things unearthly;--so thou art, +Mighty spirit--so shall be +The City that did refuge thee. _205 + +Lo, the sun floats up the sky +Like thought-winged Liberty, +Till the universal light +Seems to level plain and height; +From the sea a mist has spread, _210 +And the beams of morn lie dead +On the towers of Venice now, +Like its glory long ago. +By the skirts of that gray cloud +Many-domed Padua proud _215 +Stands, a peopled solitude, +'Mid the harvest-shining plain, +Where the peasant heaps his grain +In the garner of his foe, +And the milk-white oxen slow _220 +With the purple vintage strain, +Heaped upon the creaking wain, +That the brutal Celt may swill +Drunken sleep with savage will; +And the sickle to the sword _225 +Lies unchanged, though many a lord, +Like a weed whose shade is poison, +Overgrows this region's foison, +Sheaves of whom are ripe to come +To destruction's harvest-home: _230 +Men must reap the things they sow, +Force from force must ever flow, +Or worse; but 'tis a bitter woe +That love or reason cannot change +The despot's rage, the slave's revenge. _235 + +Padua, thou within whose walls +Those mute guests at festivals, +Son and Mother, Death and Sin, +Played at dice for Ezzelin, +Till Death cried, "I win, I win!" _240 +And Sin cursed to lose the wager, +But Death promised, to assuage her, +That he would petition for +Her to be made Vice-Emperor, +When the destined years were o'er, _245 +Over all between the Po +And the eastern Alpine snow, +Under the mighty Austrian. +Sin smiled so as Sin only can, +And since that time, ay, long before, _250 +Both have ruled from shore to shore,-- +That incestuous pair, who follow +Tyrants as the sun the swallow, +As Repentance follows Crime, +And as changes follow Time. _255 + +In thine halls the lamp of learning, +Padua, now no more is burning; +Like a meteor, whose wild way +Is lost over the grave of day, +It gleams betrayed and to betray: _260 +Once remotest nations came +To adore that sacred flame, +When it lit not many a hearth +On this cold and gloomy earth: +Now new fires from antique light _265 +Spring beneath the wide world's might; +But their spark lies dead in thee, +Trampled out by Tyranny. +As the Norway woodman quells, +In the depth of piny dells, _270 +One light flame among the brakes, +While the boundless forest shakes, +And its mighty trunks are torn +By the fire thus lowly born: +The spark beneath his feet is dead, _275 +He starts to see the flames it fed +Howling through the darkened sky +With a myriad tongues victoriously, +And sinks down in fear: so thou, +O Tyranny, beholdest now _280 +Light around thee, and thou hearest +The loud flames ascend, and fearest: +Grovel on the earth; ay, hide +In the dust thy purple pride! + +Noon descends around me now: _285 +'Tis the noon of autumn's glow, +When a soft and purple mist +Like a vaporous amethyst, +Or an air-dissolved star +Mingling light and fragrance, far _290 +From the curved horizon's bound +To the point of Heaven's profound, +Fills the overflowing sky; +And the plains that silent lie +Underneath, the leaves unsodden _295 +Where the infant Frost has trodden +With his morning-winged feet, +Whose bright print is gleaming yet; +And the red and golden vines, +Piercing with their trellised lines _300 +The rough, dark-skirted wilderness; +The dun and bladed grass no less, +Pointing from this hoary tower +In the windless air; the flower +Glimmering at my feet; the line _305 +Of the olive-sandalled Apennine +In the south dimly islanded; +And the Alps, whose snows are spread +High between the clouds and sun; +And of living things each one; _310 +And my spirit which so long +Darkened this swift stream of song,-- +Interpenetrated lie +By the glory of the sky: +Be it love, light, harmony, _315 +Odour, or the soul of all +Which from Heaven like dew doth fall, +Or the mind which feeds this verse +Peopling the lone universe. + +Noon descends, and after noon _320 +Autumn's evening meets me soon, +Leading the infantine moon, +And that one star, which to her +Almost seems to minister +Half the crimson light she brings _325 +From the sunset's radiant springs: +And the soft dreams of the morn +(Which like winged winds had borne +To that silent isle, which lies +Mid remembered agonies, _330 +The frail bark of this lone being) +Pass, to other sufferers fleeing, +And its ancient pilot, Pain, +Sits beside the helm again. + +Other flowering isles must be _335 +In the sea of Life and Agony: +Other spirits float and flee +O'er that gulf: even now, perhaps, +On some rock the wild wave wraps, +With folded wings they waiting sit _340 +For my bark, to pilot it +To some calm and blooming cove, +Where for me, and those I love, +May a windless bower be built, +Far from passion, pain, and guilt, _345 +In a dell mid lawny hills, +Which the wild sea-murmur fills, +And soft sunshine, and the sound +Of old forests echoing round, +And the light and smell divine _350 +Of all flowers that breathe and shine: +We may live so happy there, +That the Spirits of the Air, +Envying us, may even entice +To our healing Paradise _355 +The polluting multitude; +But their rage would be subdued +By that clime divine and calm, +And the winds whose wings rain balm +On the uplifted soul, and leaves _360 +Under which the bright sea heaves; +While each breathless interval +In their whisperings musical +The inspired soul supplies +With its own deep melodies; _365 +And the love which heals all strife +Circling, like the breath of life, +All things in that sweet abode +With its own mild brotherhood, +They, not it, would change; and soon _370 +Every sprite beneath the moon +Would repent its envy vain, +And the earth grow young again. + +NOTES: +_54 seamews 1819; seamew's Rossetti. +_115 Sun-girt]Sea-girt cj. Palgrave. +_165 From your dust new 1819; + From thy dust shall Rowfant manuscript (heading of lines 167-205). +_175 songs 1819; sons cj. Forman. +_278 a 1819; wanting, 1839. + +*** + + +SCENE FROM 'TASSO'. + +[Composed, 1818. Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +MADDALO, A COURTIER. +MALPIGLIO, A POET. +PIGNA, A MINISTER. +ALBANO, AN USHER. + +MADDALO: +No access to the Duke! You have not said +That the Count Maddalo would speak with him? + +PIGNA: +Did you inform his Grace that Signor Pigna +Waits with state papers for his signature? + +MALPIGLIO: +The Lady Leonora cannot know _5 +That I have written a sonnet to her fame, +In which I ... Venus and Adonis. +You should not take my gold and serve me not. + +ALBANO: +In truth I told her, and she smiled and said, +'If I am Venus, thou, coy Poesy, _10 +Art the Adonis whom I love, and he +The Erymanthian boar that wounded him.' +O trust to me, Signor Malpiglio, +Those nods and smiles were favours worth the zechin. + +MALPIGLIO: +The words are twisted in some double sense _15 +That I reach not: the smiles fell not on me. + +PIGNA: +How are the Duke and Duchess occupied? + +ALBANO: +Buried in some strange talk. The Duke was leaning, +His finger on his brow, his lips unclosed. +The Princess sate within the window-seat, _20 +And so her face was hid; but on her knee +Her hands were clasped, veined, and pale as snow, +And quivering--young Tasso, too, was there. + +MADDALO: +Thou seest on whom from thine own worshipped heaven +Thou drawest down smiles--they did not rain on thee. _25 + +MALPIGLIO: +Would they were parching lightnings for his sake +On whom they fell! + +*** + + +SONG FOR 'TASSO'. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +1. +I loved--alas! our life is love; +But when we cease to breathe and move +I do suppose love ceases too. +I thought, but not as now I do, +Keen thoughts and bright of linked lore, _5 +Of all that men had thought before. +And all that Nature shows, and more. + +2. +And still I love and still I think, +But strangely, for my heart can drink +The dregs of such despair, and live, _10 +And love;... +And if I think, my thoughts come fast, +I mix the present with the past, +And each seems uglier than the last. + +3. +Sometimes I see before me flee _15 +A silver spirit's form, like thee, +O Leonora, and I sit +...still watching it, +Till by the grated casement's ledge +It fades, with such a sigh, as sedge _20 +Breathes o'er the breezy streamlet's edge. + +*** + + +INVOCATION TO MISERY. + +[Published by Medwin, "The Athenaeum", September 8, 1832. Reprinted (as +"Misery, a Fragment") by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st +edition. Our text is that of 1839. A pencil copy of this poem is +amongst the Shelley manuscripts at the Bodleian Library. See Mr. C.D. +Locock's "Examination", etc., 1903, page 38. The readings of this copy +are indicated by the letter B. in the footnotes.] + +1. +Come, be happy!--sit near me, +Shadow-vested Misery: +Coy, unwilling, silent bride, +Mourning in thy robe of pride, +Desolation--deified! _5 + +2. +Come, be happy!--sit near me: +Sad as I may seem to thee, +I am happier far than thou, +Lady, whose imperial brow +Is endiademed with woe. _10 + +3. +Misery! we have known each other, +Like a sister and a brother +Living in the same lone home, +Many years--we must live some +Hours or ages yet to come. _15 + +4. +'Tis an evil lot, and yet +Let us make the best of it; +If love can live when pleasure dies, +We two will love, till in our eyes +This heart's Hell seem Paradise. _20 + +5. +Come, be happy!--lie thee down +On the fresh grass newly mown, +Where the Grasshopper doth sing +Merrily--one joyous thing +In a world of sorrowing! _25 + +6. +There our tent shall be the willow, +And mine arm shall be thy pillow; +Sounds and odours, sorrowful +Because they once were sweet, shall lull +Us to slumber, deep and dull. _30 + +7. +Ha! thy frozen pulses flutter +With a love thou darest not utter. +Thou art murmuring--thou art weeping-- +Is thine icy bosom leaping +While my burning heart lies sleeping? _35 + +8. +Kiss me;--oh! thy lips are cold: +Round my neck thine arms enfold-- +They are soft, but chill and dead; +And thy tears upon my head +Burn like points of frozen lead. _40 + +9. +Hasten to the bridal bed-- +Underneath the grave 'tis spread: +In darkness may our love be hid, +Oblivion be our coverlid-- +We may rest, and none forbid. _45 + +10. +Clasp me till our hearts be grown +Like two shadows into one; +Till this dreadful transport may +Like a vapour fade away, +In the sleep that lasts alway. _50 + +11. +We may dream, in that long sleep, +That we are not those who weep; +E'en as Pleasure dreams of thee, +Life-deserting Misery, +Thou mayst dream of her with me. _55 + +12. +Let us laugh, and make our mirth, +At the shadows of the earth, +As dogs bay the moonlight clouds, +Which, like spectres wrapped in shrouds, +Pass o'er night in multitudes. _60 + +13. +All the wide world, beside us, +Show like multitudinous +Puppets passing from a scene; +What but mockery can they mean, +Where I am--where thou hast been? _65 + +NOTES: +_1 near B., 1839; by 1832. +_8 happier far]merrier yet B. +_15 Hours or]Years and 1832. +_17 best]most 1832. +_19 We two will]We will 1832. +_27 mine arm shall be thy B., 1839; thine arm shall be my 1832. +_33 represented by asterisks, 1832. +_34, _35 Thou art murmuring, thou art weeping, + Whilst my burning bosom's leaping 1832; + Was thine icy bosom leaping + While my burning heart was sleeping B. +_40 frozen 1832, 1839, B.; molten cj. Forman. +_44 be]is B. +_47 shadows]lovers 1832, B. +_59 which B., 1839; that 1832. +_62 Show]Are 1832, B. +_63 Puppets passing]Shadows shifting 1832; Shadows passing B. +_64, _65 So B.: What but mockery may they mean? + Where am I?--Where thou hast been 1832. + +*** + + +STANZAS WRITTEN IN DEJECTION, NEAR NAPLES. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824, where it is dated +'December, 1818.' A draft of stanza 1 is amongst the Boscombe +manuscripts. (Garnett).] + +1. +The sun is warm, the sky is clear, +The waves are dancing fast and bright, +Blue isles and snowy mountains wear +The purple noon's transparent might, +The breath of the moist earth is light, _5 +Around its unexpanded buds; +Like many a voice of one delight, +The winds, the birds, the ocean floods, +The City's voice itself, is soft like Solitude's. + +2. +I see the Deep's untrampled floor _10 +With green and purple seaweeds strown; +I see the waves upon the shore, +Like light dissolved in star-showers, thrown: +I sit upon the sands alone,-- +The lightning of the noontide ocean _15 +Is flashing round me, and a tone +Arises from its measured motion, +How sweet! did any heart now share in my emotion. + +3. +Alas! I have nor hope nor health, +Nor peace within nor calm around, _20 +Nor that content surpassing wealth +The sage in meditation found, +And walked with inward glory crowned-- +Nor fame, nor power, nor love, nor leisure. +Others I see whom these surround-- _25 +Smiling they live, and call life pleasure;-- +To me that cup has been dealt in another measure. + +4. +Yet now despair itself is mild, +Even as the winds and waters are; +I could lie down like a tired child, _30 +And weep away the life of care +Which I have borne and yet must bear, +Till death like sleep might steal on me, +And I might feel in the warm air +My cheek grow cold, and hear the sea _35 +Breathe o'er my dying brain its last monotony. + +5. +Some might lament that I were cold, +As I, when this sweet day is gone, +Which my lost heart, too soon grown old, +Insults with this untimely moan; _40 +They might lament--for I am one +Whom men love not,--and yet regret, +Unlike this day, which, when the sun +Shall on its stainless glory set, +Will linger, though enjoyed, like joy in memory yet. _45 + +NOTES: +_4 might Boscombe manuscript, Medwin 1847; light 1824, 1839. +_5 The...light Boscombe manuscript, 1839, Medwin 1847; + omitted, 1824. moist earth Boscombe manuscript; + moist air 1839; west wind Medwin 1847. +_17 measured 1824; mingled 1847. +_18 did any heart now 1824; if any heart could Medwin 1847. +_31 the 1824; this Medwin 1847. +_36 dying 1824; outworn Medwin 1847. + +*** + + +THE WOODMAN AND THE NIGHTINGALE. + +[Published in part (1-67) by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824; +the remainder (68-70) by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +A woodman whose rough heart was out of tune +(I think such hearts yet never came to good) +Hated to hear, under the stars or moon, + +One nightingale in an interfluous wood +Satiate the hungry dark with melody;-- _5 +And as a vale is watered by a flood, + +Or as the moonlight fills the open sky +Struggling with darkness--as a tuberose +Peoples some Indian dell with scents which lie + +Like clouds above the flower from which they rose, _10 +The singing of that happy nightingale +In this sweet forest, from the golden close + +Of evening till the star of dawn may fail, +Was interfused upon the silentness; +The folded roses and the violets pale _15 + +Heard her within their slumbers, the abyss +Of heaven with all its planets; the dull ear +Of the night-cradled earth; the loneliness + +Of the circumfluous waters,--every sphere +And every flower and beam and cloud and wave, _20 +And every wind of the mute atmosphere, + +And every beast stretched in its rugged cave, +And every bird lulled on its mossy bough, +And every silver moth fresh from the grave + +Which is its cradle--ever from below _25 +Aspiring like one who loves too fair, too far, +To be consumed within the purest glow + +Of one serene and unapproached star, +As if it were a lamp of earthly light, +Unconscious, as some human lovers are, _30 + +Itself how low, how high beyond all height +The heaven where it would perish!--and every form +That worshipped in the temple of the night + +Was awed into delight, and by the charm +Girt as with an interminable zone, _35 +Whilst that sweet bird, whose music was a storm + +Of sound, shook forth the dull oblivion +Out of their dreams; harmony became love +In every soul but one. + +... + +And so this man returned with axe and saw _40 +At evening close from killing the tall treen, +The soul of whom by Nature's gentle law + +Was each a wood-nymph, and kept ever green +The pavement and the roof of the wild copse, +Chequering the sunlight of the blue serene _45 + +With jagged leaves,--and from the forest tops +Singing the winds to sleep--or weeping oft +Fast showers of aereal water-drops + +Into their mother's bosom, sweet and soft, +Nature's pure tears which have no bitterness;-- _50 +Around the cradles of the birds aloft + +They spread themselves into the loveliness +Of fan-like leaves, and over pallid flowers +Hang like moist clouds:--or, where high branches kiss, + +Make a green space among the silent bowers, _55 +Like a vast fane in a metropolis, +Surrounded by the columns and the towers + +All overwrought with branch-like traceries +In which there is religion--and the mute +Persuasion of unkindled melodies, _60 + +Odours and gleams and murmurs, which the lute +Of the blind pilot-spirit of the blast +Stirs as it sails, now grave and now acute, + +Wakening the leaves and waves, ere it has passed +To such brief unison as on the brain _65 +One tone, which never can recur, has cast, +One accent never to return again. + +... + +The world is full of Woodmen who expel +Love's gentle Dryads from the haunts of life, +And vex the nightingales in every dell. _70 + +NOTE: +_8 --or as a tuberose cj. A.C. Bradley. + +*** + + +MARENGHI. (This fragment refers to an event told in Sismondi's +"Histoire des Republiques Italiennes", which occurred during the war +when Florence finally subdued Pisa, and reduced it to a +province.--[MRS. SHELLEY'S NOTE, 1824.]) + +[Published in part (stanzas 7-15.) by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", +1824; stanzas 1-28 by W.M. Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. +S.", 1870. The Boscombe manuscript--evidently a first draft--from which +(through Dr. Garnett) Rossetti derived the text of 1870 is now at the +Bodleian, and has recently been collated by Mr. C.D. Locock, to whom +the enlarged and amended text here printed is owing. The substitution, +in title and text, of "Marenghi" for "Mazenghi" (1824) is due to +Rossetti. Here as elsewhere in the footnotes B. = the Bodleian +manuscript.] + +1. +Let those who pine in pride or in revenge, +Or think that ill for ill should be repaid, +Who barter wrong for wrong, until the exchange +Ruins the merchants of such thriftless trade, +Visit the tower of Vado, and unlearn _5 +Such bitter faith beside Marenghi's urn. + +2. +A massy tower yet overhangs the town, +A scattered group of ruined dwellings now... + +... + +3. +Another scene are wise Etruria knew +Its second ruin through internal strife _10 +And tyrants through the breach of discord threw +The chain which binds and kills. As death to life, +As winter to fair flowers (though some be poison) +So Monarchy succeeds to Freedom's foison. + +4. +In Pisa's church a cup of sculptured gold _15 +Was brimming with the blood of feuds forsworn: +A Sacrament more holy ne'er of old +Etrurians mingled mid the shades forlorn +Of moon-illumined forests, when... + +5. +And reconciling factions wet their lips _20 +With that dread wine, and swear to keep each spirit +Undarkened by their country's last eclipse... + +... + +6. +Was Florence the liberticide? that band +Of free and glorious brothers who had planted, +Like a green isle mid Aethiopian sand, _25 +A nation amid slaveries, disenchanted +Of many impious faiths--wise, just--do they, +Does Florence, gorge the sated tyrants' prey? + +7. +O foster-nurse of man's abandoned glory, +Since Athens, its great mother, sunk in splendour; _30 +Thou shadowest forth that mighty shape in story, +As ocean its wrecked fanes, severe yet tender:-- +The light-invested angel Poesy +Was drawn from the dim world to welcome thee. + +8. +And thou in painting didst transcribe all taught _35 +By loftiest meditations; marble knew +The sculptor's fearless soul--and as he wrought, +The grace of his own power and freedom grew. +And more than all, heroic, just, sublime, +Thou wart among the false...was this thy crime? _40 + +9. +Yes; and on Pisa's marble walls the twine +Of direst weeds hangs garlanded--the snake +Inhabits its wrecked palaces;--in thine +A beast of subtler venom now doth make +Its lair, and sits amid their glories overthrown, _45 +And thus thy victim's fate is as thine own. + +10. +The sweetest flowers are ever frail and rare, +And love and freedom blossom but to wither; +And good and ill like vines entangled are, +So that their grapes may oft be plucked together;-- _50 +Divide the vintage ere thou drink, then make +Thy heart rejoice for dead Marenghi's sake. + +10a. +[Albert] Marenghi was a Florentine; +If he had wealth, or children, or a wife +Or friends, [or farm] or cherished thoughts which twine _55 +The sights and sounds of home with life's own life +Of these he was despoiled and Florence sent... + +... + +11. +No record of his crime remains in story, +But if the morning bright as evening shone, _60 +It was some high and holy deed, by glory +Pursued into forgetfulness, which won +From the blind crowd he made secure and free +The patriot's meed, toil, death, and infamy. + +12. +For when by sound of trumpet was declared +A price upon his life, and there was set _65 +A penalty of blood on all who shared +So much of water with him as might wet +His lips, which speech divided not--he went +Alone, as you may guess, to banishment. + +13. +Amid the mountains, like a hunted beast, +He hid himself, and hunger, toil, and cold, _70 +Month after month endured; it was a feast +Whene'er he found those globes of deep-red gold +Which in the woods the strawberry-tree doth bear, +Suspended in their emerald atmosphere. _75 + +14. +And in the roofless huts of vast morasses, +Deserted by the fever-stricken serf, +All overgrown with reeds and long rank grasses, +And hillocks heaped of moss-inwoven turf, +And where the huge and speckled aloe made, _80 +Rooted in stones, a broad and pointed shade,-- + +15. +He housed himself. There is a point of strand +Near Vado's tower and town; and on one side +The treacherous marsh divides it from the land, +Shadowed by pine and ilex forests wide, _85 +And on the other, creeps eternally, +Through muddy weeds, the shallow sullen sea. + +16. +Here the earth's breath is pestilence, and few +But things whose nature is at war with life-- +Snakes and ill worms--endure its mortal dew. +The trophies of the clime's victorious strife-- _90 +And ringed horns which the buffalo did wear, +And the wolf's dark gray scalp who tracked him there. + +17. +And at the utmost point...stood there +The relics of a reed-inwoven cot, _95 +Thatched with broad flags. An outlawed murderer +Had lived seven days there: the pursuit was hot +When he was cold. The birds that were his grave +Fell dead after their feast in Vado's wave. + +18. +There must have burned within Marenghi's breast _100 +That fire, more warm and bright than life and hope, +(Which to the martyr makes his dungeon... +More joyous than free heaven's majestic cope +To his oppressor), warring with decay,-- +Or he could ne'er have lived years, day by day. _105 + +19. +Nor was his state so lone as you might think. +He had tamed every newt and snake and toad, +And every seagull which sailed down to drink +Those freshes ere the death-mist went abroad. +And each one, with peculiar talk and play, _110 +Wiled, not untaught, his silent time away. + +20. +And the marsh-meteors, like tame beasts, at night +Came licking with blue tongues his veined feet; +And he would watch them, as, like spirits bright, +In many entangled figures quaint and sweet _115 +To some enchanted music they would dance-- +Until they vanished at the first moon-glance. + +21. +He mocked the stars by grouping on each weed +The summer dew-globes in the golden dawn; +And, ere the hoar-frost languished, he could read _120 +Its pictured path, as on bare spots of lawn +Its delicate brief touch in silver weaves +The likeness of the wood's remembered leaves. + +22. +And many a fresh Spring morn would he awaken-- +While yet the unrisen sun made glow, like iron _125 +Quivering in crimson fire, the peaks unshaken +Of mountains and blue isles which did environ +With air-clad crags that plain of land and sea,-- +And feel ... liberty. + +23. +And in the moonless nights when the dun ocean _130 +Heaved underneath wide heaven, star-impearled, +Starting from dreams... +Communed with the immeasurable world; +And felt his life beyond his limbs dilated, +Till his mind grew like that it contemplated. _135 + +24. +His food was the wild fig and strawberry; +The milky pine-nuts which the autumn-blast +Shakes into the tall grass; or such small fry +As from the sea by winter-storms are cast; +And the coarse bulbs of iris-flowers he found _140 +Knotted in clumps under the spongy ground. + +25. +And so were kindled powers and thoughts which made +His solitude less dark. When memory came +(For years gone by leave each a deepening shade), +His spirit basked in its internal flame,-- _145 +As, when the black storm hurries round at night, +The fisher basks beside his red firelight. + +26. +Yet human hopes and cares and faiths and errors, +Like billows unawakened by the wind, +Slept in Marenghi still; but that all terrors, _150 +Weakness, and doubt, had withered in his mind. +His couch... + +... + +27. +And, when he saw beneath the sunset's planet +A black ship walk over the crimson ocean,-- +Its pennon streaming on the blasts that fan it, _155 +Its sails and ropes all tense and without motion, +Like the dark ghost of the unburied even +Striding athwart the orange-coloured heaven,-- + +28. +The thought of his own kind who made the soul +Which sped that winged shape through night and day,-- _160 +The thought of his own country... + +... + +NOTES: +_3 Who B.; Or 1870. +_6 Marenghi's 1870; Mazenghi's B. +_7 town 1870; sea B. +_8 ruined 1870; squalid B. ('the whole line is cancelled,' Locock). +_11 threw 1870; cancelled, B. +_17 A Sacrament more B.; At Sacrament: more 1870. +_18 mid B.; with 1870. +_19 forests when... B.; forests. 1870. +_23, _24 that band Of free and glorious brothers who had 1870; omitted, B. +_25 a 1870; one B. +_27 wise, just--do they 1870; omitted, B. +_28 Does 1870; Doth B. prey 1870; spoil B. +_33 angel 1824; Herald [?] B. +_34 to welcome thee 1824; cancelled for... by thee B. +_42 direst 1824; Desert B. +_45 sits amid 1824 amid cancelled for soils (?) B. +_53-_57 Albert...sent B.; omitted 1824, 1870. Albert cancelled B.: + Pietro is the correct name. +_53 Marenghi]Mazenghi B. +_55 farm doubtful: perh. fame (Locock). +_62 he 1824; thus B. +_70 Amid the mountains 1824; Mid desert mountains [?] B. +_71 toil, and cold]cold and toil editions 1824, 1839. +_92, _93 And... there B. (see Editor's Note); White bones, and locks of + dun and yellow hair, And ringed horns which buffaloes did wear-- 1870. +_94 at the utmost point 1870; cancelled for when (where?) B. +_95 reed B.; weed 1870. +_99 after B.; upon 1870. +_100 burned within Marenghi's breast B.; + lived within Marenghi's heart 1870. +_101 and B.; or 1870. +_103 free B.; the 1870. +_109 freshes B.; omitted, 1870. +_118 by 1870; with B. +_119 dew-globes B.; dewdrops 1870. +_120 languished B.; vanished 1870. +_121 path, as on [bare] B.; footprints, as on 1870. +_122 silver B.; silence 1870. +_130 And in the moonless nights 1870; cancelled, B. dun B.; + dim 1870. +_131 Heaved 1870; cancelled, B. wide B.; + the 1870. star-impearled B.; omitted, 1870. +_132 Starting from dreams 1870; cancelled for He B. +_137 autumn B.; autumnal 1870. +_138 or B.; and 1870. +_155 pennon B.; pennons 1870. +_158 athwart B.; across 1870. + +*** + + +SONNET. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824. +Our text is that of the "Poetical Works", 1839.] + +Lift not the painted veil which those who live +Call Life: though unreal shapes be pictured there, +And it but mimic all we would believe +With colours idly spread,--behind, lurk Fear +And Hope, twin Destinies; who ever weave _5 +Their shadows, o'er the chasm, sightless and drear. +I knew one who had lifted it--he sought, +For his lost heart was tender, things to love +But found them not, alas! nor was there aught +The world contains, the which he could approve. _10 +Through the unheeding many he did move, +A splendour among shadows, a bright blot +Upon this gloomy scene, a Spirit that strove +For truth, and like the Preacher found it not. + +NOTES: +_6 Their...drear 1839; + The shadows, which the world calls substance, there 1824. +_7 who had lifted 1839; who lifted 1824. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: TO BYRON. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +O mighty mind, in whose deep stream this age +Shakes like a reed in the unheeding storm, +Why dost thou curb not thine own sacred rage? + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: APOSTROPHE TO SILENCE. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862. A transcript by +Mrs. Shelley, given to Charles Cowden Clarke, presents one or two +variants.] + +Silence! Oh, well are Death and Sleep and Thou +Three brethren named, the guardians gloomy-winged +Of one abyss, where life, and truth, and joy +Are swallowed up--yet spare me, Spirit, pity me, +Until the sounds I hear become my soul, _5 +And it has left these faint and weary limbs, +To track along the lapses of the air +This wandering melody until it rests +Among lone mountains in some... + +NOTES: +_4 Spirit 1862; O Spirit C.C.C. manuscript. +_8 This wandering melody 1862; + These wandering melodies... C.C.C. manuscript. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: THE LAKE'S MARGIN. + +[Published by W.M. Rossetti, 1870.] + +The fierce beasts of the woods and wildernesses +Track not the steps of him who drinks of it; +For the light breezes, which for ever fleet +Around its margin, heap the sand thereon. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'MY HEAD IS WILD WITH WEEPING'. + +[Published by W.M. Rossetti, 1870.] + +My head is wild with weeping for a grief +Which is the shadow of a gentle mind. +I walk into the air (but no relief +To seek,--or haply, if I sought, to find; +It came unsought);--to wonder that a chief _5 +Among men's spirits should be cold and blind. + +NOTE: +_4 find cj. A.C. Bradley. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: THE VINE-SHROUD. + +[Published by W.M. Rossetti, 1870.] + +Flourishing vine, whose kindling clusters glow +Beneath the autumnal sun, none taste of thee; +For thou dost shroud a ruin, and below +The rotting bones of dead antiquity. + +*** + + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1818, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +We often hear of persons disappointed by a first visit to Italy. This +was not Shelley's case. The aspect of its nature, its sunny sky, its +majestic storms, of the luxuriant vegetation of the country, and the +noble marble-built cities, enchanted him. The sight of the works of art +was full enjoyment and wonder. He had not studied pictures or statues +before; he now did so with the eye of taste, that referred not to the +rules of schools, but to those of Nature and truth. The first entrance +to Rome opened to him a scene of remains of antique grandeur that far +surpassed his expectations; and the unspeakable beauty of Naples and +its environs added to the impression he received of the transcendent +and glorious beauty of Italy. + +Our winter was spent at Naples. Here he wrote the fragments of +"Marenghi" and "The Woodman and the Nightingale", which he afterwards +threw aside. At this time, Shelley suffered greatly in health. He put +himself under the care of a medical man, who promised great things, and +made him endure severe bodily pain, without any good results. Constant +and poignant physical suffering exhausted him; and though he preserved +the appearance of cheerfulness, and often greatly enjoyed our +wanderings in the environs of Naples, and our excursions on its sunny +sea, yet many hours were passed when his thoughts, shadowed by illness, +became gloomy,--and then he escaped to solitude, and in verses, which +he hid from fear of wounding me, poured forth morbid but too natural +bursts of discontent and sadness. One looks back with unspeakable +regret and gnawing remorse to such periods; fancying that, had one been +more alive to the nature of his feelings, and more attentive to soothe +them, such would not have existed. And yet, enjoying as he appeared to +do every sight or influence of earth or sky, it was difficult to +imagine that any melancholy he showed was aught but the effect of the +constant pain to which he was a martyr. + +We lived in utter solitude. And such is often not the nurse of +cheerfulness; for then, at least with those who have been exposed to +adversity, the mind broods over its sorrows too intently; while the +society of the enlightened, the witty, and the wise, enables us to +forget ourselves by making us the sharers of the thoughts of others, +which is a portion of the philosophy of happiness. Shelley never liked +society in numbers,--it harassed and wearied him; but neither did he +like loneliness, and usually, when alone, sheltered himself against +memory and reflection in a book. But, with one or two whom he loved, he +gave way to wild and joyous spirits, or in more serious conversation +expounded his opinions with vivacity and eloquence. If an argument +arose, no man ever argued better. He was clear, logical, and earnest, +in supporting his own views; attentive, patient, and impartial, while +listening to those on the adverse side. Had not a wall of prejudice +been raised at this time between him and his countrymen, how many would +have sought the acquaintance of one whom to know was to love and to +revere! How many of the more enlightened of his contemporaries have +since regretted that they did not seek him! how very few knew his worth +while he lived! and, of those few, several were withheld by timidity or +envy from declaring their sense of it. But no man was ever more +enthusiastically loved--more looked up to, as one superior to his +fellows in intellectual endowments and moral worth, by the few who knew +him well, and had sufficient nobleness of soul to appreciate his +superiority. His excellence is now acknowledged; but, even while +admitted, not duly appreciated. For who, except those who were +acquainted with him, can imagine his unwearied benevolence, his +generosity, his systematic forbearance? And still less is his vast +superiority in intellectual attainments sufficiently understood--his +sagacity, his clear understanding, his learning, his prodigious memory. +All these as displayed in conversation, were known to few while he +lived, and are now silent in the tomb: + +'Ahi orbo mondo ingrato! +Gran cagion hai di dever pianger meco; +Che quel ben ch' era in te, perdut' hai seco.' + +*** + + +POEMS WRITTEN IN 1819. + + +LINES WRITTEN DURING THE CASTLEREAGH ADMINISTRATION. + +[Published by Medwin, "The Athenaeum", December 8, 1832; reprinted, +"Poetical Works", 1839. There is a transcript amongst the Harvard +manuscripts, and another in the possession of Mr. C.W. Frederickson of +Brooklyn. Variants from these two sources are given by Professor +Woodberry, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", Centenary Edition, +1893, volume 3 pages 225, 226. The transcripts are referred to in our +footnotes as Harvard and Fred. respectively.] + +1. +Corpses are cold in the tomb; +Stones on the pavement are dumb; +Abortions are dead in the womb, +And their mothers look pale--like the death-white shore +Of Albion, free no more. _5 + +2. +Her sons are as stones in the way-- +They are masses of senseless clay-- +They are trodden, and move not away,-- +The abortion with which SHE travaileth +Is Liberty, smitten to death. _10 + +3. +Then trample and dance, thou Oppressor! +For thy victim is no redresser; +Thou art sole lord and possessor +Of her corpses, and clods, and abortions--they pave +Thy path to the grave. _15 + +4. +Hearest thou the festival din +Of Death, and Destruction, and Sin, +And Wealth crying "Havoc!" within? +'Tis the bacchanal triumph that makes Truth dumb, +Thine Epithalamium. _20 + +5. +Ay, marry thy ghastly wife! +Let Fear and Disquiet and Strife +Spread thy couch in the chamber of Life! +Marry Ruin, thou Tyrant! and Hell be thy guide +To the bed of the bride! _25 + +NOTES: +_4 death-white Harvard, Fred.; white 1832, 1839. +_16 festival Harvard, Fred., 1839; festal 1832. +_19 that Fred.; which Harvard 1832. +_22 Disquiet Harvard, Fred., 1839; Disgust 1832. +_24 Hell Fred.; God Harvard, 1832, 1839. +_25 the bride Harvard, Fred., 1839; thy bride 1832. + +*** + + +SONG TO THE MEN OF ENGLAND. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.] + +1. +Men of England, wherefore plough +For the lords who lay ye low? +Wherefore weave with toil and care +The rich robes your tyrants wear? + +2. +Wherefore feed, and clothe, and save, _5 +From the cradle to the grave, +Those ungrateful drones who would +Drain your sweat--nay, drink your blood? + +3. +Wherefore, Bees of England, forge +Many a weapon, chain, and scourge, _10 +That these stingless drones may spoil +The forced produce of your toil? + +4. +Have ye leisure, comfort, calm, +Shelter, food, love's gentle balm? +Or what is it ye buy so dear _15 +With your pain and with your fear? + +5. +The seed ye sow, another reaps; +The wealth ye find, another keeps; +The robes ye weave, another wears; +The arms ye forge; another bears. _20 + +6. +Sow seed,--but let no tyrant reap; +Find wealth,--let no impostor heap; +Weave robes,--let not the idle wear; +Forge arms,--in your defence to bear. + +7. +Shrink to your cellars, holes, and cells; _25 +In halls ye deck another dwells. +Why shake the chains ye wrought? Ye see +The steel ye tempered glance on ye. + +8. +With plough and spade, and hoe and loom, +Trace your grave, and build your tomb, _30 +And weave your winding-sheet, till fair +England be your sepulchre. + +*** + + +SIMILES FOR TWO POLITICAL CHARACTERS OF 1819. + +[Published by Medwin, "The Athenaeum", August 25, 1832; reprinted by +Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839. Our title is that of 1839, 2nd +edition. The poem is found amongst the Harvard manuscripts, headed "To +S--th and O--gh".] + +1. +As from an ancestral oak +Two empty ravens sound their clarion, +Yell by yell, and croak by croak, +When they scent the noonday smoke +Of fresh human carrion:-- _5 + +2. +As two gibbering night-birds flit +From their bowers of deadly yew +Through the night to frighten it, +When the moon is in a fit, +And the stars are none, or few:-- _10 + +3. +As a shark and dog-fish wait +Under an Atlantic isle, +For the negro-ship, whose freight +Is the theme of their debate, +Wrinkling their red gills the while-- _15 + +4. +Are ye, two vultures sick for battle, +Two scorpions under one wet stone, +Two bloodless wolves whose dry throats rattle, +Two crows perched on the murrained cattle, +Two vipers tangled into one. _20 + +NOTE: +_7 yew 1832; hue 1839. + +** + + +FRAGMENT: TO THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +People of England, ye who toil and groan, +Who reap the harvests which are not your own, +Who weave the clothes which your oppressors wear, +And for your own take the inclement air; +Who build warm houses... _5 +And are like gods who give them all they have, +And nurse them from the cradle to the grave... + +... + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'WHAT MEN GAIN FAIRLY'. +(Perhaps connected with that immediately preceding (Forman).--ED.) + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition.] + +What men gain fairly--that they should possess, +And children may inherit idleness, +From him who earns it--This is understood; +Private injustice may be general good. +But he who gains by base and armed wrong, _5 +Or guilty fraud, or base compliances, +May be despoiled; even as a stolen dress +Is stripped from a convicted thief; and he +Left in the nakedness of infamy. + +*** + + +A NEW NATIONAL ANTHEM. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition.] + +1. +God prosper, speed,and save, +God raise from England's grave +Her murdered Queen! +Pave with swift victory +The steps of Liberty, _5 +Whom Britons own to be +Immortal Queen. + +2. +See, she comes throned on high, +On swift Eternity! +God save the Queen! _10 +Millions on millions wait, +Firm, rapid, and elate, +On her majestic state! +God save the Queen! + +3. +She is Thine own pure soul _15 +Moulding the mighty whole,-- +God save the Queen! +She is Thine own deep love +Rained down from Heaven above,-- +Wherever she rest or move, _20 +God save our Queen! + +4. +'Wilder her enemies +In their own dark disguise,-- +God save our Queen! +All earthly things that dare _25 +Her sacred name to bear, +Strip them, as kings are, bare; +God save the Queen! + +5. +Be her eternal throne +Built in our hearts alone-- _30 +God save the Queen! +Let the oppressor hold +Canopied seats of gold; +She sits enthroned of old +O'er our hearts Queen. _35 + +6. +Lips touched by seraphim +Breathe out the choral hymn +'God save the Queen!' +Sweet as if angels sang, +Loud as that trumpet's clang _40 +Wakening the world's dead gang,-- +God save the Queen! + +*** + + +SONNET: ENGLAND IN 1819. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.] + +An old, mad, blind, despised, and dying king,-- +Princes, the dregs of their dull race, who flow +Through public scorn,--mud from a muddy spring,-- +Rulers who neither see, nor feel, nor know, +But leech-like to their fainting country cling, _5 +Till they drop, blind in blood, without a blow,-- +A people starved and stabbed in the untilled field,-- +An army, which liberticide and prey +Makes as a two-edged sword to all who wield,-- +Golden and sanguine laws which tempt and slay; _10 +Religion Christless, Godless--a book sealed; +A Senate,--Time's worst statute, unrepealed,-- +Are graves from which a glorious Phantom may +Burst, to illumine our tempestuous day. + +*** + + +AN ODE, WRITTEN OCTOBER, 1819, +BEFORE THE SPANIARDS HAD RECOVERED THEIR LIBERTY. + +[Published with "Prometheus Unbound", 1820.] + +Arise, arise, arise! +There is blood on the earth that denies ye bread; +Be your wounds like eyes +To weep for the dead, the dead, the dead. +What other grief were it just to pay? _5 +Your sons, your wives, your brethren, were they; +Who said they were slain on the battle day? + +Awaken, awaken, awaken! +The slave and the tyrant are twin-born foes; +Be the cold chains shaken _10 +To the dust where your kindred repose, repose: +Their bones in the grave will start and move, +When they hear the voices of those they love, +Most loud in the holy combat above. + +Wave, wave high the banner! _15 +When Freedom is riding to conquest by: +Though the slaves that fan her +Be Famine and Toil, giving sigh for sigh. +And ye who attend her imperial car, +Lift not your hands in the banded war, _20 +But in her defence whose children ye are. + +Glory, glory, glory, +To those who have greatly suffered and done! +Never name in story +Was greater than that which ye shall have won. _25 +Conquerors have conquered their foes alone, +Whose revenge, pride, and power they have overthrown +Ride ye, more victorious, over your own. + +Bind, bind every brow +With crownals of violet, ivy, and pine: _30 +Hide the blood-stains now +With hues which sweet Nature has made divine: +Green strength, azure hope, and eternity: +But let not the pansy among them be; +Ye were injured, and that means memory. _35 + +*** + + +CANCELLED STANZA. + +[Published in "The Times" (Rossetti).] + +Gather, O gather, +Foeman and friend in love and peace! +Waves sleep together +When the blasts that called them to battle, cease. +For fangless Power grown tame and mild _5 +Is at play with Freedom's fearless child-- +The dove and the serpent reconciled! + +*** + + +ODE TO HEAVEN. + +[Published with "Prometheus Unbound", 1820. Dated 'Florence, December, +1819' in Harvard manuscript (Woodberry). A transcript exists amongst +the Shelley manuscripts at the Bodleian Library. See Mr. C.D. Locock's +"Examination", etc., page 39.] + +CHORUS OF SPIRITS: + +FIRST SPIRIT: +Palace-roof of cloudless nights! +Paradise of golden lights! +Deep, immeasurable, vast, +Which art now, and which wert then +Of the Present and the Past, _5 +Of the eternal Where and When, +Presence-chamber, temple, home, +Ever-canopying dome, +Of acts and ages yet to come! + +Glorious shapes have life in thee, _10 +Earth, and all earth's company; +Living globes which ever throng +Thy deep chasms and wildernesses; +And green worlds that glide along; +And swift stars with flashing tresses; _15 +And icy moons most cold and bright, +And mighty suns beyond the night, +Atoms of intensest light. + +Even thy name is as a god, +Heaven! for thou art the abode _20 +Of that Power which is the glass +Wherein man his nature sees. +Generations as they pass +Worship thee with bended knees. +Their unremaining gods and they _25 +Like a river roll away: +Thou remainest such--alway!-- + +SECOND SPIRIT: +Thou art but the mind's first chamber, +Round which its young fancies clamber, +Like weak insects in a cave, _30 +Lighted up by stalactites; +But the portal of the grave, +Where a world of new delights +Will make thy best glories seem +But a dim and noonday gleam _35 +From the shadow of a dream! + +THIRD SPIRIT: +Peace! the abyss is wreathed with scorn +At your presumption, atom-born! +What is Heaven? and what are ye +Who its brief expanse inherit? _40 +What are suns and spheres which flee +With the instinct of that Spirit +Of which ye are but a part? +Drops which Nature's mighty heart +Drives through thinnest veins! Depart! _45 + +What is Heaven? a globe of dew, +Filling in the morning new +Some eyed flower whose young leaves waken +On an unimagined world: +Constellated suns unshaken, _50 +Orbits measureless, are furled +In that frail and fading sphere, +With ten millions gathered there, +To tremble, gleam, and disappear. + +*** + + +CANCELLED FRAGMENTS OF THE ODE TO HEAVEN. + +[Published by Mr. C.D. Locock, "Examination", etc., 1903.] + +The [living frame which sustains my soul] +Is [sinking beneath the fierce control] +Down through the lampless deep of song +I am drawn and driven along-- + +When a Nation screams aloud _5 +Like an eagle from the cloud +When a... + +... + +When the night... + +... + +Watch the look askance and old-- +See neglect, and falsehood fold... _10 + +*** + + +ODE TO THE WEST WIND. + +(This poem was conceived and chiefly written in a wood that skirts the +Arno, near Florence, and on a day when that tempestuous wind, whose +temperature is at once mild and animating, was collecting the vapours +which pour down the autumnal rains. They began, as I foresaw, at sunset +with a violent tempest of hail and rain, attended by that magnificent +thunder and lightning peculiar to the Cisalpine regions. + +The phenomenon alluded to at the conclusion of the third stanza is well +known to naturalists. The vegetation at the bottom of the sea, of +rivers, and of lakes, sympathizes with that of the land in the change +of seasons, and is consequently influenced by the winds which announce +it.--[SHELLEY'S NOTE.]) + +[Published with "Prometheus Unbound", 1820.] + +1. +O wild West Wind, thou breath of Autumn's being, +Thou, from whose unseen presence the leaves dead +Are driven, like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing, + +Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red, +Pestilence-stricken multitudes: O thou, _5 +Who chariotest to their dark wintry bed + +The winged seeds, where they lie cold and low, +Each like a corpse within its grave, until +Thine azure sister of the Spring shall blow + +Her clarion o'er the dreaming earth, and fill _10 +(Driving sweet buds like flocks to feed in air) +With living hues and odours plain and hill: + +Wild Spirit, which art moving everywhere; +Destroyer and preserver; hear, oh, hear! + +2. +Thou on whose stream, mid the steep sky's commotion, _15 +Loose clouds like earth's decaying leaves are shed, +Shook from the tangled boughs of Heaven and Ocean, + +Angels of rain and lightning: there are spread +On the blue surface of thine aery surge, +Like the bright hair uplifted from the head _20 + +Of some fierce Maenad, even from the dim verge +Of the horizon to the zenith's height, +The locks of the approaching storm. Thou dirge + +Of the dying year, to which this closing night +Will be the dome of a vast sepulchre, _25 +Vaulted with all thy congregated might + +Of vapours, from whose solid atmosphere +Black rain, and fire, and hail will burst: oh, hear! + +3. +Thou who didst waken from his summer dreams +The blue Mediterranean, where he lay, _30 +Lulled by the coil of his crystalline streams, + +Beside a pumice isle in Baiae's bay, +And saw in sleep old palaces and towers +Quivering within the wave's intenser day, + +All overgrown with azure moss and flowers _35 +So sweet, the sense faints picturing them! Thou +For whose path the Atlantic's level powers + +Cleave themselves into chasms, while far below +The sea-blooms and the oozy woods which wear +The sapless foliage of the ocean, know _40 + +Thy voice, and suddenly grow gray with fear, +And tremble and despoil themselves: oh, hear! + +4. +If I were a dead leaf thou mightest bear; +If I were a swift cloud to fly with thee; +A wave to pant beneath thy power, and share _45 + +The impulse of thy strength, only less free +Than thou, O uncontrollable! If even +I were as in my boyhood, and could be + +The comrade of thy wanderings over Heaven, +As then, when to outstrip thy skiey speed _50 +Scarce seemed a vision; I would ne'er have striven + +As thus with thee in prayer in my sore need. +Oh, lift me as a wave, a leaf, a cloud! +I fall upon the thorns of life! I bleed! + +A heavy weight of hours has chained and bowed _55 +One too like thee: tameless, and swift, and proud. + +5. +Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is: +What if my leaves are falling like its own! +The tumult of thy mighty harmonies + +Will take from both a deep, autumnal tone, _60 +Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce, +My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one! + +Drive my dead thoughts over the universe +Like withered leaves to quicken a new birth! +And, by the incantation of this verse, _65 + +Scatter, as from an unextinguished hearth +Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind! +Be through my lips to unawakened earth + +The trumpet of a prophecy! O, Wind, +If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind? _70 + +*** + + +AN EXHORTATION. + +[Published with "Prometheus Unbound", 1820. Dated 'Pisa, April, 1820' +in Harvard manuscript (Woodberry), but assigned by Mrs. Shelley to +1819.] + +Chameleons feed on light and air: +Poets' food is love and fame: +If in this wide world of care +Poets could but find the same +With as little toil as they, _5 +Would they ever change their hue +As the light chameleons do, +Suiting it to every ray +Twenty times a day? + +Poets are on this cold earth, _10 +As chameleons might be, +Hidden from their early birth +in a cave beneath the sea; +Where light is, chameleons change: +Where love is not, poets do: _15 +Fame is love disguised: if few +Find either, never think it strange +That poets range. + +Yet dare not stain with wealth or power +A poet's free and heavenly mind: _20 +If bright chameleons should devour +Any food but beams and wind, +They would grow as earthly soon +As their brother lizards are. +Children of a sunnier star, _25 +Spirits from beyond the moon, +Oh, refuse the boon! + +*** + + +THE INDIAN SERENADE. + +[Published, with the title, "Song written for an Indian Air", in "The +Liberal", 2, 1822. Reprinted ("Lines to an Indian Air") by Mrs. +Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824. The poem is included in the Harvard +manuscript book, and there is a description by Robert Browning of an +autograph copy presenting some variations from the text of 1824. See +Leigh Hunt's "Correspondence", 2, pages 264-8.] + +1. +I arise from dreams of thee +In the first sweet sleep of night, +When the winds are breathing low, +And the stars are shining bright: +I arise from dreams of thee, _5 +And a spirit in my feet +Hath led me--who knows how? +To thy chamber window, Sweet! + +2. +The wandering airs they faint +On the dark, the silent stream-- _10 +The Champak odours fail +Like sweet thoughts in a dream; +The nightingale's complaint, +It dies upon her heart;-- +As I must on thine, _15 +Oh, beloved as thou art! + +3. +Oh lift me from the grass! +I die! I faint! I fail! +Let thy love in kisses rain +On my lips and eyelids pale. _20 +My cheek is cold and white, alas! +My heart beats loud and fast;-- +Oh! press it to thine own again, +Where it will break at last. + +NOTES: +_3 Harvard manuscript omits When. +_4 shining]burning Harvard manuscript, 1822. +_7 Hath led Browning manuscript, 1822; + Has borne Harvard manuscript; Has led 1824. +_11 The Champak Harvard manuscript, 1822, 1824; + And the Champak's Browning manuscript. +_15 As I must on 1822, 1824; + As I must die on Harvard manuscript, 1839, 1st edition. +_16 Oh, beloved Browning manuscript, Harvard manuscript, 1839, 1st edition; + Beloved 1822, 1824. +_23 press it to thine own Browning manuscript; + press it close to thine Harvard manuscript, 1824, 1839, 1st edition; + press me to thine own, 1822. + +*** + + +CANCELLED PASSAGE. + +[Published by W.M. Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works", 1870.] + +O pillow cold and wet with tears! +Thou breathest sleep no more! + +*** + + +TO SOPHIA [MISS STACEY]. + +[Published by W.M. Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works", 1870.] + +1. +Thou art fair, and few are fairer +Of the Nymphs of earth or ocean; +They are robes that fit the wearer-- +Those soft limbs of thine, whose motion +Ever falls and shifts and glances _5 +As the life within them dances. + +2. +Thy deep eyes, a double Planet, +Gaze the wisest into madness +With soft clear fire,--the winds that fan it +Are those thoughts of tender gladness _10 +Which, like zephyrs on the billow, +Make thy gentle soul their pillow. + +3. +If, whatever face thou paintest +In those eyes, grows pale with pleasure, +If the fainting soul is faintest _15 +When it hears thy harp's wild measure, +Wonder not that when thou speakest +Of the weak my heart is weakest. + +4. +As dew beneath the wind of morning, +As the sea which whirlwinds waken, _20 +As the birds at thunder's warning, +As aught mute yet deeply shaken, +As one who feels an unseen spirit +Is my heart when thine is near it. + +*** + + +TO WILLIAM SHELLEY. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824. +The fragment included in the Harvard manuscript book.] + +(With what truth may I say-- +Roma! Roma! Roma! +Non e piu come era prima!) + +1. +My lost William, thou in whom +Some bright spirit lived, and did +That decaying robe consume +Which its lustre faintly hid,-- +Here its ashes find a tomb, _5 +But beneath this pyramid +Thou art not--if a thing divine +Like thee can die, thy funeral shrine +Is thy mother's grief and mine. + +2. +Where art thou, my gentle child? _10 +Let me think thy spirit feeds, +With its life intense and mild, +The love of living leaves and weeds +Among these tombs and ruins wild;-- +Let me think that through low seeds _15 +Of sweet flowers and sunny grass +Into their hues and scents may pass +A portion-- + +NOTE: + +Motto _1 may I Harvard manuscript; I may 1824. +_12 With Harvard manuscript, Mrs. Shelley, 1847; Within 1824, 1839. +_16 Of sweet Harvard manuscript; Of the sweet 1824, 1839. + +*** + + +TO WILLIAM SHELLEY. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.] + +Thy little footsteps on the sands +Of a remote and lonely shore; +The twinkling of thine infant hands, +Where now the worm will feed no more; +Thy mingled look of love and glee _5 +When we returned to gaze on thee-- + +*** + + +TO MARY SHELLEY. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition.] + +My dearest Mary, wherefore hast thou gone, +And left me in this dreary world alone? +Thy form is here indeed--a lovely one-- +But thou art fled, gone down the dreary road, +That leads to Sorrow's most obscure abode; _5 +Thou sittest on the hearth of pale despair, +Where +For thine own sake I cannot follow thee. + +*** + + +TO MARY SHELLEY. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition.] + +The world is dreary, +And I am weary +Of wandering on without thee, Mary; +A joy was erewhile +In thy voice and thy smile, _5 +And 'tis gone, when I should be gone too, Mary. + +*** + + +ON THE MEDUSA OF LEONARDO DA VINCI IN THE FLORENTINE GALLERY. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +1. +It lieth, gazing on the midnight sky, +Upon the cloudy mountain-peak supine; +Below, far lands are seen tremblingly; +Its horror and its beauty are divine. +Upon its lips and eyelids seems to lie _5 +Loveliness like a shadow, from which shine, +Fiery and lurid, struggling underneath, +The agonies of anguish and of death. + +2. +Yet it is less the horror than the grace +Which turns the gazer's spirit into stone, _10 +Whereon the lineaments of that dead face +Are graven, till the characters be grown +Into itself, and thought no more can trace; +'Tis the melodious hue of beauty thrown +Athwart the darkness and the glare of pain, +Which humanize and harmonize the strain. _15 + +3. +And from its head as from one body grow, +As ... grass out of a watery rock, +Hairs which are vipers, and they curl and flow +And their long tangles in each other lock, _20 +And with unending involutions show +Their mailed radiance, as it were to mock +The torture and the death within, and saw +The solid air with many a ragged jaw. + +4. +And, from a stone beside, a poisonous eft _25 +Peeps idly into those Gorgonian eyes; +Whilst in the air a ghastly bat, bereft +Of sense, has flitted with a mad surprise +Out of the cave this hideous light had cleft, +And he comes hastening like a moth that hies _30 +After a taper; and the midnight sky +Flares, a light more dread than obscurity. + +5. +'Tis the tempestuous loveliness of terror; +For from the serpents gleams a brazen glare +Kindled by that inextricable error, _35 +Which makes a thrilling vapour of the air +Become a ... and ever-shifting mirror +Of all the beauty and the terror there-- +A woman's countenance, with serpent-locks, +Gazing in death on Heaven from those wet rocks. _40 + +NOTES: +_5 seems 1839; seem 1824. +_6 shine]shrine 1824, 1839. +_26 those 1824; these 1839. + +*** + + +LOVE'S PHILOSOPHY. + +[Published by Leigh Hunt, "The Indicator", December 22, 1819. Reprinted +by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824. Included in the Harvard +manuscript book, where it is headed "An Anacreontic", and dated +'January, 1820.' Written by Shelley in a copy of Hunt's "Literary +Pocket-Book", 1819, and presented to Sophia Stacey, December 29, 1820.] + +1. +The fountains mingle with the river +And the rivers with the Ocean, +The winds of Heaven mix for ever +With a sweet emotion; +Nothing in the world is single; _5 +All things by a law divine +In one spirit meet and mingle. +Why not I with thine?-- + +2. +See the mountains kiss high Heaven +And the waves clasp one another; _10 +No sister-flower would be forgiven +If it disdained its brother; +And the sunlight clasps the earth +And the moonbeams kiss the sea: +What is all this sweet work worth _15 +If thou kiss not me? + +NOTES: +_3 mix for ever 1819, Stacey manuscript; + meet together, Harvard manuscript. +_7 In one spirit meet and Stacey manuscript; + In one another's being 1819, Harvard manuscript. +_11 No sister 1824, Harvard and Stacey manuscripts; No leaf or 1819. +_12 disdained its 1824, Harvard and Stacey manuscripts; + disdained to kiss its 1819. +_15 is all this sweet work Stacey manuscript; + were these examples Harvard manuscript; + are all these kissings 1819, 1824. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'FOLLOW TO THE DEEP WOOD'S WEEDS'. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +Follow to the deep wood's weeds, +Follow to the wild-briar dingle, +Where we seek to intermingle, +And the violet tells her tale +To the odour-scented gale, _5 +For they two have enough to do +Of such work as I and you. + +*** + + +THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +At the creation of the Earth +Pleasure, that divinest birth, +From the soil of Heaven did rise, +Wrapped in sweet wild melodies-- +Like an exhalation wreathing _5 +To the sound of air low-breathing +Through Aeolian pines, which make +A shade and shelter to the lake +Whence it rises soft and slow; +Her life-breathing [limbs] did flow _10 +In the harmony divine +Of an ever-lengthening line +Which enwrapped her perfect form +With a beauty clear and warm. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: LOVE THE UNIVERSE TO-DAY. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.] + +And who feels discord now or sorrow? +Love is the universe to-day-- +These are the slaves of dim to-morrow, +Darkening Life's labyrinthine way. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'A GENTLE STORY OF TWO LOVERS YOUNG'. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition.] + +A gentle story of two lovers young, +Who met in innocence and died in sorrow, +And of one selfish heart, whose rancour clung +Like curses on them; are ye slow to borrow +The lore of truth from such a tale? _5 +Or in this world's deserted vale, +Do ye not see a star of gladness +Pierce the shadows of its sadness,-- +When ye are cold, that love is a light sent +From Heaven, which none shall quench, to cheer the innocent? _10 + +NOTE: +_9 cold]told cj. A.C. Bradley. + For the metre cp. Fragment: To a Friend Released from Prison. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: LOVE'S TENDER ATMOSPHERE. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition.] + +There is a warm and gentle atmosphere +About the form of one we love, and thus +As in a tender mist our spirits are +Wrapped in the ... of that which is to us +The health of life's own life-- _5 + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: WEDDED SOULS. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +I am as a spirit who has dwelt +Within his heart of hearts, and I have felt +His feelings, and have thought his thoughts, and known +The inmost converse of his soul, the tone +Unheard but in the silence of his blood, _5 +When all the pulses in their multitude +Image the trembling calm of summer seas. +I have unlocked the golden melodies +Of his deep soul, as with a master-key, +And loosened them and bathed myself therein-- _10 +Even as an eagle in a thunder-mist +Clothing his wings with lightning. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'IS IT THAT IN SOME BRIGHTER SPHERE'. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +Is it that in some brighter sphere +We part from friends we meet with here? +Or do we see the Future pass +Over the Present's dusky glass? +Or what is that that makes us seem _5 +To patch up fragments of a dream, +Part of which comes true, and part +Beats and trembles in the heart? + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: SUFFICIENT UNTO THE DAY. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +Is not to-day enough? Why do I peer +Into the darkness of the day to come? +Is not to-morrow even as yesterday? +And will the day that follows change thy doom? +Few flowers grow upon thy wintry way; _5 +And who waits for thee in that cheerless home +Whence thou hast fled, whither thou must return +Charged with the load that makes thee faint and mourn? + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'YE GENTLE VISITATIONS OF CALM THOUGHT'. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.] + +Ye gentle visitations of calm thought-- +Moods like the memories of happier earth, +Which come arrayed in thoughts of little worth, +Like stars in clouds by the weak winds enwrought,-- +But that the clouds depart and stars remain, _5 +While they remain, and ye, alas, depart! + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: MUSIC AND SWEET POETRY. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition.] + +How sweet it is to sit and read the tales +Of mighty poets and to hear the while +Sweet music, which when the attention fails +Fills the dim pause-- + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: THE SEPULCHRE OF MEMORY. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.] + +And where is truth? On tombs? for such to thee +Has been my heart--and thy dead memory +Has lain from childhood, many a changeful year, +Unchangingly preserved and buried there. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'WHEN A LOVER CLASPS HIS FAIREST'. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition.] + +1. +When a lover clasps his fairest, +Then be our dread sport the rarest. +Their caresses were like the chaff +In the tempest, and be our laugh +His despair--her epitaph! _5 + +2. +When a mother clasps her child, +Watch till dusty Death has piled +His cold ashes on the clay; +She has loved it many a day-- +She remains,--it fades away. _10 + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'WAKE THE SERPENT NOT'. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition.] + +Wake the serpent not--lest he +Should not know the way to go,-- +Let him crawl which yet lies sleeping +Through the deep grass of the meadow! +Not a bee shall hear him creeping, _5 +Not a may-fly shall awaken +From its cradling blue-bell shaken, +Not the starlight as he's sliding +Through the grass with silent gliding. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: RAIN. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition.] + +The fitful alternations of the rain, +When the chill wind, languid as with pain +Of its own heavy moisture, here and there +Drives through the gray and beamless atmosphere. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: A TALE UNTOLD. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition.] + +One sung of thee who left the tale untold, +Like the false dawns which perish in the bursting; +Like empty cups of wrought and daedal gold, +Which mock the lips with air, when they are thirsting. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: TO ITALY. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +As the sunrise to the night, +As the north wind to the clouds, +As the earthquake's fiery flight, +Ruining mountain solitudes, +Everlasting Italy, _5 +Be those hopes and fears on thee. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: WINE OF THE FAIRIES. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.] + +I am drunk with the honey wine +Of the moon-unfolded eglantine, +Which fairies catch in hyacinth bowls. +The bats, the dormice, and the moles +Sleep in the walls or under the sward _5 +Of the desolate castle yard; +And when 'tis spilt on the summer earth +Or its fumes arise among the dew, +Their jocund dreams are full of mirth, +They gibber their joy in sleep; for few _10 +Of the fairies bear those bowls so new! + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: A ROMAN'S CHAMBER. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition.] + +1. +In the cave which wild weeds cover +Wait for thine aethereal lover; +For the pallid moon is waning, +O'er the spiral cypress hanging +And the moon no cloud is staining. _5 + +2. +It was once a Roman's chamber, +Where he kept his darkest revels, +And the wild weeds twine and clamber; +It was then a chasm for devils. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: ROME AND NATURE. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition.] + +Rome has fallen, ye see it lying +Heaped in undistinguished ruin: +Nature is alone undying. + +*** + + +VARIATION OF THE SONG OF THE MOON. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.] + +("PROMETHEUS UNBOUND", ACT 4.) + +As a violet's gentle eye +Gazes on the azure sky +Until its hue grows like what it beholds; +As a gray and empty mist +Lies like solid amethyst _5 +Over the western mountain it enfolds, +When the sunset sleeps +Upon its snow; +As a strain of sweetest sound +Wraps itself the wind around _10 +Until the voiceless wind be music too; +As aught dark, vain, and dull, +Basking in what is beautiful, +Is full of light and love-- + +*** + + +CANCELLED STANZA OF THE MASK OF ANARCHY. + +[Published by H. Buxton Forman, "The Mask of Anarchy" ("Facsimile of +Shelley's manuscript"), 1887.] + +(FOR WHICH STANZAS 68, 69 HAVE BEEN SUBSTITUTED.) + +From the cities where from caves, +Like the dead from putrid graves, +Troops of starvelings gliding come, +Living Tenants of a tomb. + +*** + + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1819, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +Shelley loved the People; and respected them as often more virtuous, as +always more suffering, and therefore more deserving of sympathy, than +the great. He believed that a clash between the two classes of society +was inevitable, and he eagerly ranged himself on the people's side. He +had an idea of publishing a series of poems adapted expressly to +commemorate their circumstances and wrongs. He wrote a few; but, in +those days of prosecution for libel, they could not be printed. They +are not among the best of his productions, a writer being always +shackled when he endeavours to write down to the comprehension of those +who could not understand or feel a highly imaginative style; but they +show his earnestness, and with what heart-felt compassion he went home +to the direct point of injury--that oppression is detestable as being +the parent of starvation, nakedness, and ignorance. Besides these +outpourings of compassion and indignation, he had meant to adorn the +cause he loved with loftier poetry of glory and triumph: such is the +scope of the "Ode to the Assertors of Liberty". He sketched also a new +version of our national anthem, as addressed to Liberty. + +*** + + +POEMS WRITTEN IN 1820. + + +THE SENSITIVE PLANT. + +[Composed at Pisa, early in 1820 (dated 'March, 1820,' in Harvard +manuscript), and published, with "Prometheus Unbound", the same year: +included in the Harvard College manuscript book. Reprinted in the +"Poetical Works", 1839, both editions.] + +PART 1. + +A Sensitive Plant in a garden grew, +And the young winds fed it with silver dew, +And it opened its fan-like leaves to the light. +And closed them beneath the kisses of Night. + +And the Spring arose on the garden fair, _5 +Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere; +And each flower and herb on Earth's dark breast +Rose from the dreams of its wintry rest. + +But none ever trembled and panted with bliss +In the garden, the field, or the wilderness, _10 +Like a doe in the noontide with love's sweet want, +As the companionless Sensitive Plant. + +The snowdrop, and then the violet, +Arose from the ground with warm rain wet, +And their breath was mixed with fresh odour, sent _15 +From the turf, like the voice and the instrument. + +Then the pied wind-flowers and the tulip tall, +And narcissi, the fairest among them all, +Who gaze on their eyes in the stream's recess, +Till they die of their own dear loveliness; _20 + +And the Naiad-like lily of the vale, +Whom youth makes so fair and passion so pale +That the light of its tremulous bells is seen +Through their pavilions of tender green; + +And the hyacinth purple, and white, and blue, _25 +Which flung from its bells a sweet peal anew +Of music so delicate, soft, and intense, +It was felt like an odour within the sense; + +And the rose like a nymph to the bath addressed, +Which unveiled the depth of her glowing breast, _30 +Till, fold after fold, to the fainting air +The soul of her beauty and love lay bare: + +And the wand-like lily, which lifted up, +As a Maenad, its moonlight-coloured cup, +Till the fiery star, which is its eye, +Gazed through clear dew on the tender sky; _35 + +And the jessamine faint, and the sweet tuberose, +The sweetest flower for scent that blows; +And all rare blossoms from every clime +Grew in that garden in perfect prime. _40 + +And on the stream whose inconstant bosom +Was pranked, under boughs of embowering blossom, +With golden and green light, slanting through +Their heaven of many a tangled hue, + +Broad water-lilies lay tremulously, _45 +And starry river-buds glimmered by, +And around them the soft stream did glide and dance +With a motion of sweet sound and radiance. + +And the sinuous paths of lawn and of moss, +Which led through the garden along and across, _50 +Some open at once to the sun and the breeze, +Some lost among bowers of blossoming trees, + +Were all paved with daisies and delicate bells +As fair as the fabulous asphodels, +And flow'rets which, drooping as day drooped too, _55 +Fell into pavilions, white, purple, and blue, +To roof the glow-worm from the evening dew. + +And from this undefiled Paradise +The flowers (as an infant's awakening eyes +Smile on its mother, whose singing sweet _60 +Can first lull, and at last must awaken it), + +When Heaven's blithe winds had unfolded them, +As mine-lamps enkindle a hidden gem, +Shone smiling to Heaven, and every one _65 +Shared joy in the light of the gentle sun; + +For each one was interpenetrated +With the light and the odour its neighbour shed, +Like young lovers whom youth and love make dear +Wrapped and filled by their mutual atmosphere. + +But the Sensitive Plant which could give small fruit _70 +Of the love which it felt from the leaf to the root, +Received more than all, it loved more than ever, +Where none wanted but it, could belong to the giver,-- + +For the Sensitive Plant has no bright flower; +Radiance and odour are not its dower; _75 +It loves, even like Love, its deep heart is full, +It desires what it has not, the Beautiful! + +The light winds which from unsustaining wings +Shed the music of many murmurings; +The beams which dart from many a star _80 +Of the flowers whose hues they bear afar; + +The plumed insects swift and free, +Like golden boats on a sunny sea, +Laden with light and odour, which pass +Over the gleam of the living grass; _85 + +The unseen clouds of the dew, which lie +Like fire in the flowers till the sun rides high, +Then wander like spirits among the spheres, +Each cloud faint with the fragrance it bears; + +The quivering vapours of dim noontide, _90 +Which like a sea o'er the warm earth glide, +In which every sound, and odour, and beam, +Move, as reeds in a single stream; + +Each and all like ministering angels were +For the Sensitive Plant sweet joy to bear, _95 +Whilst the lagging hours of the day went by +Like windless clouds o'er a tender sky. + +And when evening descended from Heaven above, +And the Earth was all rest, and the air was all love, +And delight, though less bright, was far more deep, _100 +And the day's veil fell from the world of sleep, + +And the beasts, and the birds, and the insects were drowned +In an ocean of dreams without a sound; +Whose waves never mark, though they ever impress +The light sand which paves it, consciousness; _105 + +(Only overhead the sweet nightingale +Ever sang more sweet as the day might fail, +And snatches of its Elysian chant +Were mixed with the dreams of the Sensitive Plant);-- + +The Sensitive Plant was the earliest _110 +Upgathered into the bosom of rest; +A sweet child weary of its delight, +The feeblest and yet the favourite, +Cradled within the embrace of Night. + +NOTES: +_6 Like the Spirit of Love felt 1820; + And the Spirit of Love felt 1839, 1st edition; + And the Spirit of Love fell 1839, 2nd edition. +_49 and of moss]and moss Harvard manuscript. +_82 The]And the Harvard manuscript. + + +PART 2. + +There was a Power in this sweet place, +An Eve in this Eden; a ruling Grace +Which to the flowers, did they waken or dream, +Was as God is to the starry scheme. + +A Lady, the wonder of her kind, _5 +Whose form was upborne by a lovely mind +Which, dilating, had moulded her mien and motion +Like a sea-flower unfolded beneath the ocean, + +Tended the garden from morn to even: +And the meteors of that sublunar Heaven, _10 +Like the lamps of the air when Night walks forth, +Laughed round her footsteps up from the Earth! + +She had no companion of mortal race, +But her tremulous breath and her flushing face +Told, whilst the morn kissed the sleep from her eyes, _15 +That her dreams were less slumber than Paradise: + +As if some bright Spirit for her sweet sake +Had deserted Heaven while the stars were awake, +As if yet around her he lingering were, +Though the veil of daylight concealed him from her. _20 + +Her step seemed to pity the grass it pressed; +You might hear by the heaving of her breast, +That the coming and going of the wind +Brought pleasure there and left passion behind. + +And wherever her aery footstep trod, _25 +Her trailing hair from the grassy sod +Erased its light vestige, with shadowy sweep, +Like a sunny storm o'er the dark green deep. + +I doubt not the flowers of that garden sweet +Rejoiced in the sound of her gentle feet; _30 +I doubt not they felt the spirit that came +From her glowing fingers through all their frame. + +She sprinkled bright water from the stream +On those that were faint with the sunny beam; +And out of the cups of the heavy flowers _35 +She emptied the rain of the thunder-showers. + +She lifted their heads with her tender hands, +And sustained them with rods and osier-bands; +If the flowers had been her own infants, she +Could never have nursed them more tenderly. _40 + +And all killing insects and gnawing worms, +And things of obscene and unlovely forms, +She bore, in a basket of Indian woof, +Into the rough woods far aloof,-- + +In a basket, of grasses and wild-flowers full, _45 +The freshest her gentle hands could pull +For the poor banished insects, whose intent, +Although they did ill, was innocent. + +But the bee and the beamlike ephemeris +Whose path is the lightning's, and soft moths that kiss _50 +The sweet lips of the flowers, and harm not, did she +Make her attendant angels be. + +And many an antenatal tomb, +Where butterflies dream of the life to come, +She left clinging round the smooth and dark _55 +Edge of the odorous cedar bark. + +This fairest creature from earliest Spring +Thus moved through the garden ministering +Mi the sweet season of Summertide, +And ere the first leaf looked brown--she died! _60 + +NOTES: +_15 morn Harvard manuscript, 1839; moon 1820. +_23 and going 1820; and the going Harvard manuscript, 1839. +_59 All 1820, 1839; Through all Harvard manuscript. + +PART 3. + +Three days the flowers of the garden fair, +Like stars when the moon is awakened, were, +Or the waves of Baiae, ere luminous +She floats up through the smoke of Vesuvius. + +And on the fourth, the Sensitive Plant _5 +Felt the sound of the funeral chant, +And the steps of the bearers, heavy and slow, +And the sobs of the mourners, deep and low; + +The weary sound and the heavy breath, +And the silent motions of passing death, _10 +And the smell, cold, oppressive, and dank, +Sent through the pores of the coffin-plank; + +The dark grass, and the flowers among the grass, +Were bright with tears as the crowd did pass; +From their sighs the wind caught a mournful tone, _15 +And sate in the pines, and gave groan for groan. + +The garden, once fair, became cold and foul, +Like the corpse of her who had been its soul, +Which at first was lovely as if in sleep, +Then slowly changed, till it grew a heap _20 +To make men tremble who never weep. + +Swift Summer into the Autumn flowed, +And frost in the mist of the morning rode, +Though the noonday sun looked clear and bright, +Mocking the spoil of the secret night. _25 + +The rose-leaves, like flakes of crimson snow, +Paved the turf and the moss below. +The lilies were drooping, and white, and wan, +Like the head and the skin of a dying man. + +And Indian plants, of scent and hue _30 +The sweetest that ever were fed on dew, +Leaf by leaf, day after day, +Were massed into the common clay. + +And the leaves, brown, yellow, and gray, and red, +And white with the whiteness of what is dead, _35 +Like troops of ghosts on the dry wind passed; +Their whistling noise made the birds aghast. + +And the gusty winds waked the winged seeds, +Out of their birthplace of ugly weeds, +Till they clung round many a sweet flower's stem, _40 +Which rotted into the earth with them. + +The water-blooms under the rivulet +Fell from the stalks on which they were set; +And the eddies drove them here and there, +As the winds did those of the upper air. _45 + +Then the rain came down, and the broken stalks +Were bent and tangled across the walks; +And the leafless network of parasite bowers +Massed into ruin; and all sweet flowers. + +Between the time of the wind and the snow _50 +All loathliest weeds began to grow, +Whose coarse leaves were splashed with many a speck, +Like the water-snake's belly and the toad's back. + +And thistles, and nettles, and darnels rank, +And the dock, and henbane, and hemlock dank, _55 +Stretched out its long and hollow shank, +And stifled the air till the dead wind stank. + +And plants, at whose names the verse feels loath, +Filled the place with a monstrous undergrowth, +Prickly, and pulpous, and blistering, and blue, _60 +Livid, and starred with a lurid dew. + +And agarics, and fungi, with mildew and mould +Started like mist from the wet ground cold; +Pale, fleshy, as if the decaying dead +With a spirit of growth had been animated! _65 + +Spawn, weeds, and filth, a leprous scum, +Made the running rivulet thick and dumb, +And at its outlet flags huge as stakes +Dammed it up with roots knotted like water-snakes. + +And hour by hour, when the air was still, _70 +The vapours arose which have strength to kill; +At morn they were seen, at noon they were felt, +At night they were darkness no star could melt. + +And unctuous meteors from spray to spray +Crept and flitted in broad noonday _75 +Unseen; every branch on which they alit +By a venomous blight was burned and bit. + +The Sensitive Plant, like one forbid, +Wept, and the tears within each lid +Of its folded leaves, which together grew, _80 +Were changed to a blight of frozen glue. + +For the leaves soon fell, and the branches soon +By the heavy axe of the blast were hewn; +The sap shrank to the root through every pore +As blood to a heart that will beat no more. _85 + +For Winter came: the wind was his whip: +One choppy finger was on his lip: +He had torn the cataracts from the hills +And they clanked at his girdle like manacles; + +His breath was a chain which without a sound _90 +The earth, and the air, and the water bound; +He came, fiercely driven, in his chariot-throne +By the tenfold blasts of the Arctic zone. + +Then the weeds which were forms of living death +Fled from the frost to the earth beneath. _95 +Their decay and sudden flight from frost +Was but like the vanishing of a ghost! + +And under the roots of the Sensitive Plant +The moles and the dormice died for want: +The birds dropped stiff from the frozen air _100 +And were caught in the branches naked and bare. + +First there came down a thawing rain +And its dull drops froze on the boughs again; +Then there steamed up a freezing dew +Which to the drops of the thaw-rain grew; _105 + +And a northern whirlwind, wandering about +Like a wolf that had smelt a dead child out, +Shook the boughs thus laden, and heavy, and stiff, +And snapped them off with his rigid griff. + +When Winter had gone and Spring came back _110 +The Sensitive Plant was a leafless wreck; +But the mandrakes, and toadstools, and docks, and darnels, +Rose like the dead from their ruined charnels. + +CONCLUSION. + +Whether the Sensitive Plant, or that +Which within its boughs like a Spirit sat, _115 +Ere its outward form had known decay, +Now felt this change, I cannot say. + +Whether that Lady's gentle mind, +No longer with the form combined +Which scattered love, as stars do light, _120 +Found sadness, where it left delight, + +I dare not guess; but in this life +Of error, ignorance, and strife, +Where nothing is, but all things seem, +And we the shadows of the dream, _125 + +It is a modest creed, and yet +Pleasant if one considers it, +To own that death itself must be, +Like all the rest, a mockery. + +That garden sweet, that lady fair, _130 +And all sweet shapes and odours there, +In truth have never passed away: +'Tis we, 'tis ours, are changed; not they. + +For love, and beauty, and delight, +There is no death nor change: their might _135 +Exceeds our organs, which endure +No light, being themselves obscure. + +NOTES: +_19 lovely Harvard manuscript, 1839; lively 1820. +_23 of the morning 1820, 1839; of morning Harvard manuscript. +_26 snow Harvard manuscript, 1839; now 1820. +_28 And lilies were drooping, white and wan Harvard manuscript. +_32 Leaf by leaf, day after day Harvard manuscript; + Leaf after leaf, day after day 1820; + Leaf after leaf, day by day 1839. +_63 mist]mists Harvard manuscript. +_96 and sudden flight]and their sudden flight the Harvard manuscript. +_98 And under]Under Harvard manuscript. +_114 Whether]And if Harvard manuscript. +_118 Whether]Or if Harvard manuscript. + +*** + + +CANCELLED PASSAGE. + +[This stanza followed 3, 62-65 in the editio princeps, 1820, but was +omitted by Mrs. Shelley from all editions from 1839 onwards. It is +cancelled in the Harvard manuscript.] + +Their moss rotted off them, flake by flake, +Till the thick stalk stuck like a murderer's stake, +Where rags of loose flesh yet tremble on high, +Infecting the winds that wander by. + +*** + + +A VISION OF THE SEA. + +[Composed at Pisa early in 1820, and published with "Prometheus +Unbound" in the same year. A transcript in Mrs. Shelley's handwriting +is included in the Harvard manuscript book, where it is dated 'April, +1820.'] + +'Tis the terror of tempest. The rags of the sail +Are flickering in ribbons within the fierce gale: +From the stark night of vapours the dim rain is driven, +And when lightning is loosed, like a deluge from Heaven, +She sees the black trunks of the waterspouts spin _5 +And bend, as if Heaven was ruining in, +Which they seemed to sustain with their terrible mass +As if ocean had sunk from beneath them: they pass +To their graves in the deep with an earthquake of sound, +And the waves and the thunders, made silent around, _10 +Leave the wind to its echo. The vessel, now tossed +Through the low-trailing rack of the tempest, is lost +In the skirts of the thunder-cloud: now down the sweep +Of the wind-cloven wave to the chasm of the deep +It sinks, and the walls of the watery vale _15 +Whose depths of dread calm are unmoved by the gale, +Dim mirrors of ruin, hang gleaming about; +While the surf, like a chaos of stars, like a rout +Of death-flames, like whirlpools of fire-flowing iron, +With splendour and terror the black ship environ, _20 +Or like sulphur-flakes hurled from a mine of pale fire +In fountains spout o'er it. In many a spire +The pyramid-billows with white points of brine +In the cope of the lightning inconstantly shine, +As piercing the sky from the floor of the sea. _25 +The great ship seems splitting! it cracks as a tree, +While an earthquake is splintering its root, ere the blast +Of the whirlwind that stripped it of branches has passed. +The intense thunder-balls which are raining from Heaven +Have shattered its mast, and it stands black and riven. _30 +The chinks suck destruction. The heavy dead hulk +On the living sea rolls an inanimate bulk, +Like a corpse on the clay which is hungering to fold +Its corruption around it. Meanwhile, from the hold, +One deck is burst up by the waters below, _35 +And it splits like the ice when the thaw-breezes blow +O'er the lakes of the desert! Who sit on the other? +Is that all the crew that lie burying each other, +Like the dead in a breach, round the foremast? Are those +Twin tigers, who burst, when the waters arose, _40 +In the agony of terror, their chains in the hold; +(What now makes them tame, is what then made them bold;) +Who crouch, side by side, and have driven, like a crank, +The deep grip of their claws through the vibrating plank +Are these all? Nine weeks the tall vessel had lain _45 +On the windless expanse of the watery plain, +Where the death-darting sun cast no shadow at noon, +And there seemed to be fire in the beams of the moon, +Till a lead-coloured fog gathered up from the deep, +Whose breath was quick pestilence; then, the cold sleep _50 +Crept, like blight through the ears of a thick field of corn, +O'er the populous vessel. And even and morn, +With their hammocks for coffins the seamen aghast +Like dead men the dead limbs of their comrades cast +Down the deep, which closed on them above and around, _55 +And the sharks and the dogfish their grave-clothes unbound, +And were glutted like Jews with this manna rained down +From God on their wilderness. One after one +The mariners died; on the eve of this day, +When the tempest was gathering in cloudy array, _60 +But seven remained. Six the thunder has smitten, +And they lie black as mummies on which Time has written +His scorn of the embalmer; the seventh, from the deck +An oak-splinter pierced through his breast and his back, +And hung out to the tempest, a wreck on the wreck. _65 +No more? At the helm sits a woman more fair +Than Heaven, when, unbinding its star-braided hair, +It sinks with the sun on the earth and the sea. +She clasps a bright child on her upgathered knee; +It laughs at the lightning, it mocks the mixed thunder _70 +Of the air and the sea, with desire and with wonder +It is beckoning the tigers to rise and come near, +It would play with those eyes where the radiance of fear +Is outshining the meteors; its bosom beats high, +The heart-fire of pleasure has kindled its eye, _75 +While its mother's is lustreless. 'Smile not, my child, +But sleep deeply and sweetly, and so be beguiled +Of the pang that awaits us, whatever that be, +So dreadful since thou must divide it with me! +Dream, sleep! This pale bosom, thy cradle and bed, _80 +Will it rock thee not, infant? 'Tis beating with dread! +Alas! what is life, what is death, what are we, +That when the ship sinks we no longer may be? +What! to see thee no more, and to feel thee no more? +To be after life what we have been before? _85 +Not to touch those sweet hands? Not to look on those eyes, +Those lips, and that hair,--all the smiling disguise +Thou yet wearest, sweet Spirit, which I, day by day, +Have so long called my child, but which now fades away +Like a rainbow, and I the fallen shower?'--Lo! the ship _90 +Is settling, it topples, the leeward ports dip; +The tigers leap up when they feel the slow brine +Crawling inch by inch on them; hair, ears, limbs, and eyne, +Stand rigid with horror; a loud, long, hoarse cry +Bursts at once from their vitals tremendously, _95 +And 'tis borne down the mountainous vale of the wave, +Rebounding, like thunder, from crag to cave, +Mixed with the clash of the lashing rain, +Hurried on by the might of the hurricane: +The hurricane came from the west, and passed on _100 +By the path of the gate of the eastern sun, +Transversely dividing the stream of the storm; +As an arrowy serpent, pursuing the form +Of an elephant, bursts through the brakes of the waste. +Black as a cormorant the screaming blast, _105 +Between Ocean and Heaven, like an ocean, passed, +Till it came to the clouds on the verge of the world +Which, based on the sea and to Heaven upcurled, +Like columns and walls did surround and sustain +The dome of the tempest; it rent them in twain, _110 +As a flood rends its barriers of mountainous crag: +And the dense clouds in many a ruin and rag, +Like the stones of a temple ere earthquake has passed, +Like the dust of its fall. on the whirlwind are cast; +They are scattered like foam on the torrent; and where _115 +The wind has burst out through the chasm, from the air +Of clear morning the beams of the sunrise flow in, +Unimpeded, keen, golden, and crystalline, +Banded armies of light and of air; at one gate +They encounter, but interpenetrate. _120 +And that breach in the tempest is widening away, +And the caverns of cloud are torn up by the day, +And the fierce winds are sinking with weary wings, +Lulled by the motion and murmurings +And the long glassy heave of the rocking sea, _125 +And overhead glorious, but dreadful to see, +The wrecks of the tempest, like vapours of gold, +Are consuming in sunrise. The heaped waves behold +The deep calm of blue Heaven dilating above, +And, like passions made still by the presence of Love, _130 +Beneath the clear surface reflecting it slide +Tremulous with soft influence; extending its tide +From the Andes to Atlas, round mountain and isle, +Round sea-birds and wrecks, paved with Heaven's azure smile, +The wide world of waters is vibrating. Where _135 +Is the ship? On the verge of the wave where it lay +One tiger is mingled in ghastly affray +With a sea-snake. The foam and the smoke of the battle +Stain the clear air with sunbows; the jar, and the rattle +Of solid bones crushed by the infinite stress _140 +Of the snake's adamantine voluminousness; +And the hum of the hot blood that spouts and rains +Where the gripe of the tiger has wounded the veins +Swollen with rage, strength, and effort; the whirl and the splash +As of some hideous engine whose brazen teeth smash _145 +The thin winds and soft waves into thunder; the screams +And hissings crawl fast o'er the smooth ocean-streams, +Each sound like a centipede. Near this commotion, +A blue shark is hanging within the blue ocean, +The fin-winged tomb of the victor. The other _150 +Is winning his way from the fate of his brother +To his own with the speed of despair. Lo! a boat +Advances; twelve rowers with the impulse of thought +Urge on the keen keel,--the brine foams. At the stern +Three marksmen stand levelling. Hot bullets burn _155 +In the breast of the tiger, which yet bears him on +To his refuge and ruin. One fragment alone,-- +'Tis dwindling and sinking, 'tis now almost gone,-- +Of the wreck of the vessel peers out of the sea. +With her left hand she grasps it impetuously. _160 +With her right she sustains her fair infant. Death, Fear, +Love, Beauty, are mixed in the atmosphere, +Which trembles and burns with the fervour of dread +Around her wild eyes, her bright hand, and her head, +Like a meteor of light o'er the waters! her child _165 +Is yet smiling, and playing, and murmuring; so smiled +The false deep ere the storm. Like a sister and brother +The child and the ocean still smile on each other, +Whilst-- + +NOTES: +_6 ruining Harvard manuscript, 1839; raining 1820. +_8 sunk Harvard manuscript, 1839; sank 1820. +_35 by Harvard manuscript; from 1820, 1839. +_61 has 1820; had 1839. +_87 all the Harvard manuscript; all that 1820, 1839. +_116 through Harvard manuscript; from 1820, 1839. +_121 away]alway cj. A.C. Bradley. +_122 cloud Harvard manuscript, 1839; clouds 1820. +_160 impetuously 1820, 1839; convulsively Harvard manuscript. + +*** + + +THE CLOUD. + +[Published with "Prometheus Unbound", 1820.] + +I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers, +From the seas and the streams; +I bear light shade for the leaves when laid +In their noonday dreams. +From my wings are shaken the dews that waken _5 +The sweet buds every one, +When rocked to rest on their mother's breast, +As she dances about the sun. +I wield the flail of the lashing hail, +And whiten the green plains under, _10 +And then again I dissolve it in rain, +And laugh as I pass in thunder. + +I sift the snow on the mountains below, +And their great pines groan aghast; +And all the night 'tis my pillow white, _15 +While I sleep in the arms of the blast. +Sublime on the towers of my skiey bowers, +Lightning my pilot sits; +In a cavern under is fettered the thunder, +It struggles and howls at fits; _20 +Over earth and ocean, with gentle motion, +This pilot is guiding me, +Lured by the love of the genii that move +In the depths of the purple sea; +Over the rills, and the crags, and the hills. _25 +Over the lakes and the plains, +Wherever he dream, under mountain or stream, +The Spirit he loves remains; +And I all the while bask in Heaven's blue smile, +Whilst he is dissolving in rains. _30 + +The sanguine Sunrise, with his meteor eyes, +And his burning plumes outspread, +Leaps on the back of my sailing rack, +When the morning star shines dead; +As on the jag of a mountain crag, _35 +Which an earthquake rocks and swings, +An eagle alit one moment may sit +In the light of its golden wings. +And when Sunset may breathe, from the lit sea beneath, +Its ardours of rest and of love, _40 +And the crimson pall of eve may fall +From the depth of Heaven above. +With wings folded I rest, on mine aery nest, +As still as a brooding dove. + +That orbed maiden with white fire laden, _45 +Whom mortals call the Moon, +Glides glimmering o'er my fleece-like floor, +By the midnight breezes strewn; +And wherever the beat of her unseen feet, +Which only the angels hear, _50 +May have broken the woof of my tent's thin roof. +The stars peep behind her and peer; +And I laugh to see them whirl and flee, +Like a swarm of golden bees. +When I widen the rent in my wind-built tent, _55 +Till the calm rivers, lakes, and seas, +Like strips of the sky fallen through me on high, +Are each paved with the moon and these. + +I bind the Sun's throne with a burning zone, +And the Moon's with a girdle of pearl; _60 +The volcanoes are dim, and the stars reel and swim, +When the whirlwinds my banner unfurl. +From cape to cape, with a bridge-like shape, +Over a torrent sea, +Sunbeam-proof, I hand like a roof,-- _65 +The mountains its columns be. +The triumphal arch through which I march +With hurricane, fire, and snow, +When the Powers of the air are chained to my chair, +Is the million-coloured bow; _70 +The sphere-fire above its soft colours wove, +While the moist Earth was laughing below. + +I am the daughter of Earth and Water, +And the nursling of the Sky; +I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores; _75 +I change, but I cannot die. +For after the rain when with never a stain +The pavilion of Heaven is bare, +And the winds and sunbeams with their convex gleams +Build up the blue dome of air, _80 +I silently laugh at my own cenotaph, +And out of the caverns of rain, +Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb, +I arise and unbuild it again. + +NOTES: +_3 shade 1820; shades 1839. +_6 buds 1839; birds 1820. +_59 with a 1820; with the 1830. + +*** + + +TO A SKYLARK. + +[Composed at Leghorn, 1820, and published with "Prometheus Unbound" in +the same year. There is a transcript in the Harvard manuscript.] + +Hail to thee, blithe Spirit! +Bird thou never wert, +That from Heaven, or near it, +Pourest thy full heart +In profuse strains of unpremeditated art. _5 + +Higher still and higher +From the earth thou springest +Like a cloud of fire; +The blue deep thou wingest, +And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest. _10 + +In the golden lightning +Of the sunken sun, +O'er which clouds are bright'ning. +Thou dost float and run; +Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun. _15 + +The pale purple even +Melts around thy flight; +Like a star of Heaven, +In the broad daylight +Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight, _20 + +Keen as are the arrows +Of that silver sphere, +Whose intense lamp narrows +In the white dawn clear +Until we hardly see--we feel that it is there. _25 + +All the earth and air +With thy voice is loud, +As, when night is bare, +From one lonely cloud +The moon rains out her beams, and Heaven is overflowed. _30 + +What thou art we know not; +What is most like thee? +From rainbow clouds there flow not +Drops so bright to see +As from thy presence showers a rain of melody. _35 + +Like a Poet hidden +In the light of thought, +Singing hymns unbidden, +Till the world is wrought +To sympathy with hopes and fears it heeded not: _40 + +Like a high-born maiden +In a palace-tower, +Soothing her love-laden +Soul in secret hour +With music sweet as love, which overflows her bower: _45 + +Like a glow-worm golden +In a dell of dew, +Scattering unbeholden +Its aereal hue +Among the flowers and grass, which screen it from the view! _50 + +Like a rose embowered +In its own green leaves, +By warm winds deflowered, +Till the scent it gives +Makes faint with too much sweet those heavy-winged thieves: _55 + +Sound of vernal showers +On the twinkling grass, +Rain-awakened flowers, +All that ever was +Joyous, and clear, and fresh, thy music doth surpass: _60 + +Teach us, Sprite or Bird, +What sweet thoughts are thine: +I have never heard +Praise of love or wine +That panted forth a flood of rapture so divine. _65 + +Chorus Hymeneal, +Or triumphal chant, +Matched with thine would be all +But an empty vaunt, +A thing wherein we feel there is some hidden want. _70 + +What objects are the fountains +Of thy happy strain? +What fields, or waves, or mountains? +What shapes of sky or plain? +What love of thine own kind? what ignorance of pain? _75 + +With thy clear keen joyance +Languor cannot be: +Shadow of annoyance +Never came near thee: +Thou lovest--but ne'er knew love's sad satiety. _80 + +Waking or asleep, +Thou of death must deem +Things more true and deep +Than we mortals dream, +Or how could thy notes flow in such a crystal stream? _85 + +We look before and after, +And pine for what is not: +Our sincerest laughter +With some pain is fraught; +Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought. _90 + +Yet if we could scorn +Hate, and pride, and fear; +If we were things born +Not to shed a tear, +I know not how thy joy we ever should come near. _95 + +Better than all measures +Of delightful sound, +Better than all treasures +That in books are found, +Thy skill to poet were, thou scorner of the ground! _100 + +Teach me half the gladness +That thy brain must know, +Such harmonious madness +From my lips would flow +The world should listen then--as I am listening now. _105 + +NOTE: +_55 those Harvard manuscript: these 1820, 1839. + + +*** + + +ODE TO LIBERTY. + +[Composed early in 1820, and published, with "Prometheus Unbound", in +the same year. A transcript in Shelley's hand of lines 1-21 is included +in the Harvard manuscript book, and amongst the Boscombe manuscripts +there is a fragment of a rough draft (Garnett). For further particulars +concerning the text see Editor's Notes.] + +Yet, Freedom, yet, thy banner, torn but flying, +Streams like a thunder-storm against the wind.--BYRON. + +1. +A glorious people vibrated again +The lightning of the nations: Liberty +From heart to heart, from tower to tower, o'er Spain, +Scattering contagious fire into the sky, +Gleamed. My soul spurned the chains of its dismay, _5 +And in the rapid plumes of song +Clothed itself, sublime and strong; +As a young eagle soars the morning clouds among, +Hovering inverse o'er its accustomed prey; +Till from its station in the Heaven of fame _10 +The Spirit's whirlwind rapped it, and the ray +Of the remotest sphere of living flame +Which paves the void was from behind it flung, +As foam from a ship's swiftness, when there came +A voice out of the deep: I will record the same. _15 + +2. +The Sun and the serenest Moon sprang forth: +The burning stars of the abyss were hurled +Into the depths of Heaven. The daedal earth, +That island in the ocean of the world, +Hung in its cloud of all-sustaining air: _20 +But this divinest universe +Was yet a chaos and a curse, +For thou wert not: but, power from worst producing worse, +The spirit of the beasts was kindled there, +And of the birds, and of the watery forms, _25 +And there was war among them, and despair +Within them, raging without truce or terms: +The bosom of their violated nurse +Groaned, for beasts warred on beasts, and worms on worms, +And men on men; each heart was as a hell of storms. _30 + +3. +Man, the imperial shape, then multiplied +His generations under the pavilion +Of the Sun's throne: palace and pyramid, +Temple and prison, to many a swarming million +Were, as to mountain-wolves their ragged caves. _35 +This human living multitude +Was savage, cunning, blind, and rude, +For thou wert not; but o'er the populous solitude, +Like one fierce cloud over a waste of waves, +Hung Tyranny; beneath, sate deified _40 +The sister-pest, congregator of slaves; +Into the shadow of her pinions wide +Anarchs and priests, who feed on gold and blood +Till with the stain their inmost souls are dyed, +Drove the astonished herds of men from every side. _45 + +4. +The nodding promontories, and blue isles, +And cloud-like mountains, and dividuous waves +Of Greece, basked glorious in the open smiles +Of favouring Heaven: from their enchanted caves +Prophetic echoes flung dim melody. _50 +On the unapprehensive wild +The vine, the corn, the olive mild, +Grew savage yet, to human use unreconciled; +And, like unfolded flowers beneath the sea, +Like the man's thought dark in the infant's brain, _55 +Like aught that is which wraps what is to be, +Art's deathless dreams lay veiled by many a vein +Of Parian stone; and, yet a speechless child, +Verse murmured, and Philosophy did strain +Her lidless eyes for thee; when o'er the Aegean main _60 + +5. +Athens arose: a city such as vision +Builds from the purple crags and silver towers +Of battlemented cloud, as in derision +Of kingliest masonry: the ocean-floors +Pave it; the evening sky pavilions it; _65 +Its portals are inhabited +By thunder-zoned winds, each head +Within its cloudy wings with sun-fire garlanded,-- +A divine work! Athens, diviner yet, +Gleamed with its crest of columns, on the will _70 +Of man, as on a mount of diamond, set; +For thou wert, and thine all-creative skill +Peopled, with forms that mock the eternal dead +In marble immortality, that hill +Which was thine earliest throne and latest oracle. _75 + +6. +Within the surface of Time's fleeting river +Its wrinkled image lies, as then it lay +Immovably unquiet, and for ever +It trembles, but it cannot pass away! +The voices of thy bards and sages thunder _80 +With an earth-awakening blast +Through the caverns of the past: +(Religion veils her eyes; Oppression shrinks aghast:) +A winged sound of joy, and love, and wonder, +Which soars where Expectation never flew, _85 +Rending the veil of space and time asunder! +One ocean feeds the clouds, and streams, and dew; +One Sun illumines Heaven; one Spirit vast +With life and love makes chaos ever new, +As Athens doth the world with thy delight renew. _90 + +7. +Then Rome was, and from thy deep bosom fairest, +Like a wolf-cub from a Cadmaean Maenad, +She drew the milk of greatness, though thy dearest +From that Elysian food was yet unweaned; +And many a deed of terrible uprightness _95 +By thy sweet love was sanctified; +And in thy smile, and by thy side, +Saintly Camillus lived, and firm Atilius died. +But when tears stained thy robe of vestal-whiteness, +And gold profaned thy Capitolian throne, _100 +Thou didst desert, with spirit-winged lightness, +The senate of the tyrants: they sunk prone +Slaves of one tyrant: Palatinus sighed +Faint echoes of Ionian song; that tone +Thou didst delay to hear, lamenting to disown _105 + +8. +From what Hyrcanian glen or frozen hill, +Or piny promontory of the Arctic main, +Or utmost islet inaccessible, +Didst thou lament the ruin of thy reign, +Teaching the woods and waves, and desert rocks, _110 +And every Naiad's ice-cold urn, +To talk in echoes sad and stern +Of that sublimest lore which man had dared unlearn? +For neither didst thou watch the wizard flocks +Of the Scald's dreams, nor haunt the Druid's sleep. _115 +What if the tears rained through thy shattered locks +Were quickly dried? for thou didst groan, not weep, +When from its sea of death, to kill and burn, +The Galilean serpent forth did creep, +And made thy world an undistinguishable heap. _120 + +9. +A thousand years the Earth cried, 'Where art thou?' +And then the shadow of thy coming fell +On Saxon Alfred's olive-cinctured brow: +And many a warrior-peopled citadel. +Like rocks which fire lifts out of the flat deep, _125 +Arose in sacred Italy, +Frowning o'er the tempestuous sea +Of kings, and priests, and slaves, in tower-crowned majesty; +That multitudinous anarchy did sweep +And burst around their walls, like idle foam, _130 +Whilst from the human spirit's deepest deep +Strange melody with love and awe struck dumb +Dissonant arms; and Art, which cannot die, +With divine wand traced on our earthly home +Fit imagery to pave Heaven's everlasting dome. _135 + +10. +Thou huntress swifter than the Moon! thou terror +Of the world's wolves! thou bearer of the quiver, +Whose sunlike shafts pierce tempest-winged Error, +As light may pierce the clouds when they dissever +In the calm regions of the orient day! _140 +Luther caught thy wakening glance; +Like lightning, from his leaden lance +Reflected, it dissolved the visions of the trance +In which, as in a tomb, the nations lay; +And England's prophets hailed thee as their queen, _145 +In songs whose music cannot pass away, +Though it must flow forever: not unseen +Before the spirit-sighted countenance +Of Milton didst thou pass, from the sad scene +Beyond whose night he saw, with a dejected mien. _150 + +11. +The eager hours and unreluctant years +As on a dawn-illumined mountain stood. +Trampling to silence their loud hopes and fears, +Darkening each other with their multitude, +And cried aloud, 'Liberty!' Indignation _155 +Answered Pity from her cave; +Death grew pale within the grave, +And Desolation howled to the destroyer, Save! +When like Heaven's Sun girt by the exhalation +Of its own glorious light, thou didst arise. _160 +Chasing thy foes from nation unto nation +Like shadows: as if day had cloven the skies +At dreaming midnight o'er the western wave, +Men started, staggering with a glad surprise, +Under the lightnings of thine unfamiliar eyes. _165 + +12. +Thou Heaven of earth! what spells could pall thee then +In ominous eclipse? a thousand years +Bred from the slime of deep Oppression's den. +Dyed all thy liquid light with blood and tears. +Till thy sweet stars could weep the stain away; _170 +How like Bacchanals of blood +Round France, the ghastly vintage, stood +Destruction's sceptred slaves, and Folly's mitred brood! +When one, like them, but mightier far than they, +The Anarch of thine own bewildered powers, _175 +Rose: armies mingled in obscure array, +Like clouds with clouds, darkening the sacred bowers +Of serene Heaven. He, by the past pursued, +Rests with those dead, but unforgotten hours, +Whose ghosts scare victor kings in their ancestral towers. _180 + +13. +England yet sleeps: was she not called of old? +Spain calls her now, as with its thrilling thunder +Vesuvius wakens Aetna, and the cold +Snow-crags by its reply are cloven in sunder: +O'er the lit waves every Aeolian isle _185 +From Pithecusa to Pelorus +Howls, and leaps, and glares in chorus: +They cry, 'Be dim; ye lamps of Heaven suspended o'er us!' +Her chains are threads of gold, she need but smile +And they dissolve; but Spain's were links of steel, _190 +Till bit to dust by virtue's keenest file. +Twins of a single destiny! appeal +To the eternal years enthroned before us +In the dim West; impress us from a seal, +All ye have thought and done! Time cannot dare conceal. _195 + +14. +Tomb of Arminius! render up thy dead +Till, like a standard from a watch-tower's staff, +His soul may stream over the tyrant's head; +Thy victory shall be his epitaph, +Wild Bacchanal of truth's mysterious wine, _200 +King-deluded Germany, +His dead spirit lives in thee. +Why do we fear or hope? thou art already free! +And thou, lost Paradise of this divine +And glorious world! thou flowery wilderness! _205 +Thou island of eternity! thou shrine +Where Desolation, clothed with loveliness, +Worships the thing thou wert! O Italy, +Gather thy blood into thy heart; repress +The beasts who make their dens thy sacred palaces. _210 + +15. +Oh, that the free would stamp the impious name +Of KING into the dust! or write it there, +So that this blot upon the page of fame +Were as a serpent's path, which the light air +Erases, and the flat sands close behind! _215 +Ye the oracle have heard: +Lift the victory-flashing sword. +And cut the snaky knots of this foul gordian word, +Which, weak itself as stubble, yet can bind +Into a mass, irrefragably firm, _220 +The axes and the rods which awe mankind; +The sound has poison in it, 'tis the sperm +Of what makes life foul, cankerous, and abhorred; +Disdain not thou, at thine appointed term, +To set thine armed heel on this reluctant worm. _225 + +16. +Oh, that the wise from their bright minds would kindle +Such lamps within the dome of this dim world, +That the pale name of PRIEST might shrink and dwindle +Into the hell from which it first was hurled, +A scoff of impious pride from fiends impure; _230 +Till human thoughts might kneel alone, +Each before the judgement-throne +Of its own aweless soul, or of the Power unknown! +Oh, that the words which make the thoughts obscure +From which they spring, as clouds of glimmering dew _235 +From a white lake blot Heaven's blue portraiture, +Were stripped of their thin masks and various hue +And frowns and smiles and splendours not their own, +Till in the nakedness of false and true +They stand before their Lord, each to receive its due! _240 + +17. +He who taught man to vanquish whatsoever +Can be between the cradle and the grave +Crowned him the King of Life. Oh, vain endeavour! +If on his own high will, a willing slave, +He has enthroned the oppression and the oppressor _245 +What if earth can clothe and feed +Amplest millions at their need, +And power in thought be as the tree within the seed? +Or what if Art, an ardent intercessor, +Driving on fiery wings to Nature's throne, _250 +Checks the great mother stooping to caress her, +And cries: 'Give me, thy child, dominion +Over all height and depth'? if Life can breed +New wants, and wealth from those who toil and groan, +Rend of thy gifts and hers a thousandfold for one! _255 + +18. +Come thou, but lead out of the inmost cave +Of man's deep spirit, as the morning-star +Beckons the Sun from the Eoan wave, +Wisdom. I hear the pennons of her car +Self-moving, like cloud charioted by flame; _260 +Comes she not, and come ye not, +Rulers of eternal thought, +To judge, with solemn truth, life's ill-apportioned lot? +Blind Love, and equal Justice, and the Fame +Of what has been, the Hope of what will be? _265 +O Liberty! if such could be thy name +Wert thou disjoined from these, or they from thee: +If thine or theirs were treasures to be bought +By blood or tears, have not the wise and free +Wept tears, and blood like tears?--The solemn harmony _270 + +19. +Paused, and the Spirit of that mighty singing +To its abyss was suddenly withdrawn; +Then, as a wild swan, when sublimely winging +Its path athwart the thunder-smoke of dawn, +Sinks headlong through the aereal golden light _275 +On the heavy-sounding plain, +When the bolt has pierced its brain; +As summer clouds dissolve, unburthened of their rain; +As a far taper fades with fading night, +As a brief insect dies with dying day,-- _280 +My song, its pinions disarrayed of might, +Drooped; o'er it closed the echoes far away +Of the great voice which did its flight sustain, +As waves which lately paved his watery way +Hiss round a drowner's head in their tempestuous play. _285 + +NOTES: +_4 into]unto Harvard manuscript. +_9 inverse cj. Rossetti; in verse 1820. +_92 See the Bacchae of Euripides--[SHELLEY'S NOTE]. +_113 lore 1839; love 1820. +_116 shattered]scattered cj. Rossetti. +_134 wand 1820; want 1830. +_194 us]as cj. Forman. +_212 KING Boscombe manuscript; **** 1820, 1839; CHRIST cj. Swinburne. +_249 Or 1839; O, 1820. +_250 Driving 1820; Diving 1839. + +*** + + +CANCELLED PASSAGE OF THE ODE TO LIBERTY. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +Within a cavern of man's trackless spirit +Is throned an Image, so intensely fair +That the adventurous thoughts that wander near it +Worship, and as they kneel, tremble and wear +The splendour of its presence, and the light _5 +Penetrates their dreamlike frame +Till they become charged with the strength of flame. + +*** + + +TO --. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +1. +I fear thy kisses, gentle maiden, +Thou needest not fear mine; +My spirit is too deeply laden +Ever to burthen thine. + +2. +I fear thy mien, thy tones, thy motion, _5 +Thou needest not fear mine; +Innocent is the heart's devotion +With which I worship thine. + +*** + + +ARETHUSA. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824, and dated by her +'Pisa, 1820.' There is a fair draft amongst the Shelley manuscripts at +the Bodleian Library. See Mr. C.D. Locock's "Examination", etc., 1903, +page 24.] + +1. +Arethusa arose +From her couch of snows +In the Acroceraunian mountains,-- +From cloud and from crag, +With many a jag, _5 +Shepherding her bright fountains. +She leapt down the rocks, +With her rainbow locks +Streaming among the streams;-- +Her steps paved with green _10 +The downward ravine +Which slopes to the western gleams; +And gliding and springing +She went, ever singing, +In murmurs as soft as sleep; _15 +The Earth seemed to love her, +And Heaven smiled above her, +As she lingered towards the deep. + +2. +Then Alpheus bold, +On his glacier cold, _20 +With his trident the mountains strook; +And opened a chasm +In the rocks--with the spasm +All Erymanthus shook. +And the black south wind _25 +It unsealed behind +The urns of the silent snow, +And earthquake and thunder +Did rend in sunder +The bars of the springs below. _30 +And the beard and the hair +Of the River-god were +Seen through the torrent's sweep, +As he followed the light +Of the fleet nymph's flight _35 +To the brink of the Dorian deep. + +3. +'Oh, save me! Oh, guide me! +And bid the deep hide me, +For he grasps me now by the hair!' +The loud Ocean heard, _40 +To its blue depth stirred, +And divided at her prayer; +And under the water +The Earth's white daughter +Fled like a sunny beam; _45 +Behind her descended +Her billows, unblended +With the brackish Dorian stream:-- +Like a gloomy stain +On the emerald main _50 +Alpheus rushed behind,-- +As an eagle pursuing +A dove to its ruin +Down the streams of the cloudy wind. + +4. +Under the bowers _55 +Where the Ocean Powers +Sit on their pearled thrones; +Through the coral woods +Of the weltering floods, +Over heaps of unvalued stones; _60 +Through the dim beams +Which amid the streams +Weave a network of coloured light; +And under the caves, +Where the shadowy waves _65 +Are as green as the forest's night:-- +Outspeeding the shark, +And the sword-fish dark, +Under the Ocean's foam, +And up through the rifts _70 +Of the mountain clifts +They passed to their Dorian home. + +5. +And now from their fountains +In Enna's mountains, +Down one vale where the morning basks, _75 +Like friends once parted +Grown single-hearted, +They ply their watery tasks. +At sunrise they leap +From their cradles steep _80 +In the cave of the shelving hill; +At noontide they flow +Through the woods below +And the meadows of asphodel; +And at night they sleep _85 +In the rocking deep +Beneath the Ortygian shore;-- +Like spirits that lie +In the azure sky +When they love but live no more. _90 + +NOTES: +_6 unsealed B.; concealed 1824. +_31 And the B.; The 1824. +_69 Ocean's B.; ocean 1824. + +*** + + +SONG OF PROSERPINE WHILE GATHERING FLOWERS ON THE PLAIN OF ENNA. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition. There +is a fair draft amongst the Shelley manuscripts at the Bodleian +Library. See Mr. C.D. Locock's "Examination," etc., 1903, page 24.] + +1. +Sacred Goddess, Mother Earth, +Thou from whose immortal bosom +Gods, and men, and beasts have birth, +Leaf and blade, and bud and blossom, +Breathe thine influence most divine _5 +On thine own child, Proserpine. + +2. +If with mists of evening dew +Thou dost nourish these young flowers +Till they grow, in scent and hue, +Fairest children of the Hours, _10 +Breathe thine influence most divine +On thine own child, Proserpine. + +*** + + +HYMN OF APOLLO. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824. There is a fair +draft amongst the Shelley manuscripts at the Bodleian. See Mr. C.D. +Locock's "Examination", etc., 1903, page 25.] + +1. +The sleepless Hours who watch me as I lie, +Curtained with star-inwoven tapestries +From the broad moonlight of the sky, +Fanning the busy dreams from my dim eyes,-- +Waken me when their Mother, the gray Dawn, _5 +Tells them that dreams and that the moon is gone. + +2. +Then I arise, and climbing Heaven's blue dome, +I walk over the mountains and the waves, +Leaving my robe upon the ocean foam; +My footsteps pave the clouds with fire; the caves _10 +Are filled with my bright presence, and the air +Leaves the green Earth to my embraces bare. + +3. +The sunbeams are my shafts, with which I kill +Deceit, that loves the night and fears the day; +All men who do or even imagine ill _15 +Fly me, and from the glory of my ray +Good minds and open actions take new might, +Until diminished by the reign of Night. + +4. +I feed the clouds, the rainbows and the flowers +With their aethereal colours; the moon's globe _20 +And the pure stars in their eternal bowers +Are cinctured with my power as with a robe; +Whatever lamps on Earth or Heaven may shine +Are portions of one power, which is mine. + +5. +I stand at noon upon the peak of Heaven, _25 +Then with unwilling steps I wander down +Into the clouds of the Atlantic even; +For grief that I depart they weep and frown: +What look is more delightful than the smile +With which I soothe them from the western isle? _30 + +6. +I am the eye with which the Universe +Beholds itself and knows itself divine; +All harmony of instrument or verse, +All prophecy, all medicine is mine, +All light of art or nature;--to my song _35 +Victory and praise in its own right belong. + +NOTES: +_32 itself divine]it is divine B. +_34 is B.; are 1824. +_36 its cj. Rossetti, 1870, B.; their 1824. + +*** + + +HYMN OF PAN. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824. There is a fair +draft amongst the Shelley manuscripts at the Bodleian. See Mr. C.D. +Locock's "Examination", etc., 1903, page 25.] + +1. +From the forests and highlands +We come, we come; +From the river-girt islands, +Where loud waves are dumb +Listening to my sweet pipings. _5 +The wind in the reeds and the rushes, +The bees on the bells of thyme, +The birds on the myrtle bushes, +The cicale above in the lime, +And the lizards below in the grass, _10 +Were as silent as ever old Tmolus was, +Listening to my sweet pipings. + +2. +Liquid Peneus was flowing, +And all dark Tempe lay +In Pelion's shadow, outgrowing _15 +The light of the dying day, +Speeded by my sweet pipings. +The Sileni, and Sylvans, and Fauns, +And the Nymphs of the woods and the waves, +To the edge of the moist river-lawns, _20 +And the brink of the dewy caves, +And all that did then attend and follow, +Were silent with love, as you now, Apollo, +With envy of my sweet pipings. + +3. +I sang of the dancing stars, _25 +I sang of the daedal Earth, +And of Heaven--and the giant wars, +And Love, and Death, and Birth,-- +And then I changed my pipings,-- +Singing how down the vale of Maenalus _30 +I pursued a maiden and clasped a reed. +Gods and men, we are all deluded thus! +It breaks in our bosom and then we bleed: +All wept, as I think both ye now would, +If envy or age had not frozen your blood, _35 +At the sorrow of my sweet pipings. + +NOTE: +_5, _12 Listening to]Listening B. + +*** + + +THE QUESTION. + +[Published by Leigh Hunt (with the signature Sigma) in "The Literary +Pocket-Book", 1822. Reprinted by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", +1824. Copies exist in the Harvard manuscript book, amongst the Boscombe +manuscripts, and amongst Ollier manuscripts.] + +1. +I dreamed that, as I wandered by the way, +Bare Winter suddenly was changed to Spring, +And gentle odours led my steps astray, +Mixed with a sound of waters murmuring +Along a shelving bank of turf, which lay _5 +Under a copse, and hardly dared to fling +Its green arms round the bosom of the stream, +But kissed it and then fled, as thou mightest in dream. + +2. +There grew pied wind-flowers and violets, +Daisies, those pearled Arcturi of the earth, _10 +The constellated flower that never sets; +Faint oxslips; tender bluebells, at whose birth +The sod scarce heaved; and that tall flower that wets-- +Like a child, half in tenderness and mirth-- +Its mother's face with Heaven's collected tears, _15 +When the low wind, its playmate's voice, it hears. + +3. +And in the warm hedge grew lush eglantine, +Green cowbind and the moonlight-coloured may, +And cherry-blossoms, and white cups, whose wine +Was the bright dew, yet drained not by the day; _20 +And wild roses, and ivy serpentine, +With its dark buds and leaves, wandering astray; +And flowers azure, black, and streaked with gold, +Fairer than any wakened eyes behold. + +4. +And nearer to the river's trembling edge _25 +There grew broad flag-flowers, purple pranked with white. +And starry river buds among the sedge, +And floating water-lilies, broad and bright, +Which lit the oak that overhung the hedge +With moonlight beams of their own watery light; _30 +And bulrushes, and reeds of such deep green +As soothed the dazzled eye with sober sheen. + +5. +Methought that of these visionary flowers +I made a nosegay, bound in such a way +That the same hues, which in their natural bowers _35 +Were mingled or opposed, the like array +Kept these imprisoned children of the Hours +Within my hand,--and then, elate and gay, +I hastened to the spot whence I had come, +That I might there present it!--Oh! to whom? _40 + +NOTES: +_14 Like...mirth Harvard manuscript, Boscombe manuscript; + wanting in Ollier manuscript, 1822, 1824, 1839. +_15 Heaven's collected Harvard manuscript, Ollier manuscript, 1822; + Heaven-collected 1824, 1839. + +*** + + +THE TWO SPIRITS: AN ALLEGORY. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +FIRST SPIRIT: +O thou, who plumed with strong desire +Wouldst float above the earth, beware! +A Shadow tracks thy flight of fire-- +Night is coming! +Bright are the regions of the air, _5 +And among the winds and beams +It were delight to wander there-- +Night is coming! + +SECOND SPIRIT: +The deathless stars are bright above; +If I would cross the shade of night, _10 +Within my heart is the lamp of love, +And that is day! +And the moon will smile with gentle light +On my golden plumes where'er they move; +The meteors will linger round my flight, _15 +And make night day. + +FIRST SPIRIT: +But if the whirlwinds of darkness waken +Hail, and lightning, and stormy rain; +See, the bounds of the air are shaken-- +Night is coming! _20 +The red swift clouds of the hurricane +Yon declining sun have overtaken, +The clash of the hail sweeps over the plain-- +Night is coming! + +SECOND SPIRIT: +I see the light, and I hear the sound; _25 +I'll sail on the flood of the tempest dark +With the calm within and the light around +Which makes night day: +And thou, when the gloom is deep and stark, +Look from thy dull earth, slumber-bound, _30 +My moon-like flight thou then mayst mark +On high, far away. + +... + +Some say there is a precipice +Where one vast pine is frozen to ruin +O'er piles of snow and chasms of ice _35 +Mid Alpine mountains; +And that the languid storm pursuing +That winged shape, for ever flies +Round those hoar branches, aye renewing +Its aery fountains. _40 + +Some say when nights are dry and clear, +And the death-dews sleep on the morass, +Sweet whispers are heard by the traveller, +Which make night day: +And a silver shape like his early love doth pass _45 +Upborne by her wild and glittering hair, +And when he awakes on the fragrant grass, +He finds night day. + +NOTES: +_2 Wouldst 1839; Would 1824. +_31 moon-like 1824; moonlight 1839. +_44 make]makes 1824, 1839. + +*** + + +ODE TO NAPLES. + +(The Author has connected many recollections of his visit to Pompeii +and Baiae with the enthusiasm excited by the intelligence of the +proclamation of a Constitutional Government at Naples. This has given a +tinge of picturesque and descriptive imagery to the introductory Epodes +which depicture these scenes, and some of the majestic feelings +permanently connected with the scene of this animating +event.--[SHELLEY'S NOTE.]) + +[Composed at San Juliano di Pisa, August 17-25, 1820; published in +"Posthumous Poems", 1824. There is a copy, 'for the most part neat and +legible,' amongst the Shelley manuscripts at the Bodleian Library. See +Mr. C.D. Locock's "Examination", etc., 1903, pages 14-18.] + +EPODE 1a. + +I stood within the City disinterred; +And heard the autumnal leaves like light footfalls +Of spirits passing through the streets; and heard +The Mountain's slumberous voice at intervals +Thrill through those roofless halls; _5 +The oracular thunder penetrating shook +The listening soul in my suspended blood; +I felt that Earth out of her deep heart spoke-- +I felt, but heard not:--through white columns glowed +The isle-sustaining ocean-flood, _10 +A plane of light between two heavens of azure! +Around me gleamed many a bright sepulchre +Of whose pure beauty, Time, as if his pleasure +Were to spare Death, had never made erasure; +But every living lineament was clear _15 +As in the sculptor's thought; and there +The wreaths of stony myrtle, ivy, and pine, +Like winter leaves o'ergrown by moulded snow, +Seemed only not to move and grow +Because the crystal silence of the air _20 +Weighed on their life; even as the Power divine +Which then lulled all things, brooded upon mine. + +NOTE: +_1 Pompeii.--[SHELLEY'S NOTE.] + +EPODE 2a. + +Then gentle winds arose +With many a mingled close +Of wild Aeolian sound, and mountain-odours keen; _25 +And where the Baian ocean +Welters with airlike motion, +Within, above, around its bowers of starry green, +Moving the sea-flowers in those purple caves, +Even as the ever stormless atmosphere _30 +Floats o'er the Elysian realm, +It bore me, like an Angel, o'er the waves +Of sunlight, whose swift pinnace of dewy air +No storm can overwhelm. +I sailed, where ever flows _35 +Under the calm Serene +A spirit of deep emotion +From the unknown graves +Of the dead Kings of Melody. +Shadowy Aornos darkened o'er the helm _40 +The horizontal aether; Heaven stripped bare +Its depth over Elysium, where the prow +Made the invisible water white as snow; +From that Typhaean mount, Inarime, +There streamed a sunbright vapour, like the standard _45 +Of some aethereal host; +Whilst from all the coast, +Louder and louder, gathering round, there wandered +Over the oracular woods and divine sea +Prophesyings which grew articulate-- +They seize me--I must speak them!--be they fate! _50 + +NOTES: +_25 odours B.; odour 1824. +_42 depth B.; depths 1824. +_45 sun-bright B.; sunlit 1824. +_39 Homer and Virgil.--[SHELLEY'S NOTE.] + +STROPHE 1. + +Naples! thou Heart of men which ever pantest +Naked, beneath the lidless eye of Heaven! +Elysian City, which to calm enchantest +The mutinous air and sea! they round thee, even _55 +As sleep round Love, are driven! +Metropolis of a ruined Paradise +Long lost, late won, and yet but half regained! +Bright Altar of the bloodless sacrifice +Which armed Victory offers up unstained _60 +To Love, the flower-enchained! +Thou which wert once, and then didst cease to be, +Now art, and henceforth ever shalt be, free, +If Hope, and Truth, and Justice can avail,-- +Hail, hail, all hail! _65 + +STROPHE 2. + +Thou youngest giant birth +Which from the groaning earth +Leap'st, clothed in armour of impenetrable scale! +Last of the Intercessors! +Who 'gainst the Crowned Transgressors _70 +Pleadest before God's love! Arrayed in Wisdom's mail, +Wave thy lightning lance in mirth +Nor let thy high heart fail, +Though from their hundred gates the leagued Oppressors +With hurried legions move! _75 +Hail, hail, all hail! + +ANTISTROPHE 1a. + +What though Cimmerian Anarchs dare blaspheme +Freedom and thee? thy shield is as a mirror +To make their blind slaves see, and with fierce gleam +To turn his hungry sword upon the wearer; _80 +A new Actaeon's error +Shall theirs have been--devoured by their own hounds! +Be thou like the imperial Basilisk +Killing thy foe with unapparent wounds! +Gaze on Oppression, till at that dread risk _85 +Aghast she pass from the Earth's disk: +Fear not, but gaze--for freemen mightier grow, +And slaves more feeble, gazing on their foe:-- +If Hope, and Truth, and Justice may avail, +Thou shalt be great--All hail! _90 + +ANTISTROPHE 2a. + +From Freedom's form divine, +From Nature's inmost shrine, +Strip every impious gawd, rend +Error veil by veil; +O'er Ruin desolate, +O'er Falsehood's fallen state, _95 +Sit thou sublime, unawed; be the Destroyer pale! +And equal laws be thine, +And winged words let sail, +Freighted with truth even from the throne of God: +That wealth, surviving fate, _100 +Be thine.--All hail! + +NOTE: +_100 wealth-surviving cj. A.C. Bradley. + +ANTISTROPHE 1b. + +Didst thou not start to hear Spain's thrilling paean +From land to land re-echoed solemnly, +Till silence became music? From the Aeaean +To the cold Alps, eternal Italy _105 +Starts to hear thine! The Sea +Which paves the desert streets of Venice laughs +In light, and music; widowed Genoa wan +By moonlight spells ancestral epitaphs, +Murmuring, 'Where is Doria?' fair Milan, _110 +Within whose veins long ran +The viper's palsying venom, lifts her heel +To bruise his head. The signal and the seal +(If Hope and Truth and Justice can avail) +Art thou of all these hopes.--O hail! _115 + +NOTES: +_104 Aeaea, the island of Circe.--[SHELLEY'S NOTE.] +_112 The viper was the armorial device of the Visconti, + tyrants of Milan.--[SHELLEY'S NOTE.] + +ANTISTROPHE 2b. + +Florence! beneath the sun, +Of cities fairest one, +Blushes within her bower for Freedom's expectation: +From eyes of quenchless hope +Rome tears the priestly cope, _120 +As ruling once by power, so now by admiration,-- +An athlete stripped to run +From a remoter station +For the high prize lost on Philippi's shore:-- +As then Hope, Truth, and Justice did avail, _125 +So now may Fraud and Wrong! O hail! + +EPODE 1b. + +Hear ye the march as of the Earth-born Forms +Arrayed against the ever-living Gods? +The crash and darkness of a thousand storms +Bursting their inaccessible abodes _130 +Of crags and thunder-clouds? +See ye the banners blazoned to the day, +Inwrought with emblems of barbaric pride? +Dissonant threats kill Silence far away, +The serene Heaven which wraps our Eden wide _135 +With iron light is dyed; +The Anarchs of the North lead forth their legions +Like Chaos o'er creation, uncreating; +An hundred tribes nourished on strange religions +And lawless slaveries,--down the aereal regions _140 +Of the white Alps, desolating, +Famished wolves that bide no waiting, +Blotting the glowing footsteps of old glory, +Trampling our columned cities into dust, +Their dull and savage lust _145 +On Beauty's corse to sickness satiating-- +They come! The fields they tread look black and hoary +With fire--from their red feet the streams run gory! + +EPODE 2b. + +Great Spirit, deepest Love! +Which rulest and dost move _150 +All things which live and are, within the Italian shore; +Who spreadest Heaven around it, +Whose woods, rocks, waves, surround it; +Who sittest in thy star, o'er Ocean's western floor; +Spirit of beauty! at whose soft command _155 +The sunbeams and the showers distil its foison +From the Earth's bosom chill; +Oh, bid those beams be each a blinding brand +Of lightning! bid those showers be dews of poison! +Bid the Earth's plenty kill! _160 +Bid thy bright Heaven above, +Whilst light and darkness bound it, +Be their tomb who planned +To make it ours and thine! +Or, with thine harmonizing ardours fill _165 +And raise thy sons, as o'er the prone horizon +Thy lamp feeds every twilight wave with fire-- +Be man's high hope and unextinct desire +The instrument to work thy will divine! +Then clouds from sunbeams, antelopes from leopards, _170 +And frowns and fears from thee, +Would not more swiftly flee +Than Celtic wolves from the Ausonian shepherds.-- +Whatever, Spirit, from thy starry shrine +Thou yieldest or withholdest, oh, let be _175 +This city of thy worship ever free! + +NOTES: +_143 old 1824; lost B. +_147 black 1824; blue B. + +*** + + +AUTUMN: A DIRGE. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +1. +The warm sun is failing, the bleak wind is wailing, +The bare boughs are sighing, the pale flowers are dying, +And the Year +On the earth her death-bed, in a shroud of leaves dead, +Is lying. _5 +Come, Months, come away, +From November to May, +In your saddest array; +Follow the bier +Of the dead cold Year, _10 +And like dim shadows watch by her sepulchre. + +2. +The chill rain is falling, the nipped worm is crawling, +The rivers are swelling, the thunder is knelling +For the Year; +The blithe swallows are flown, and the lizards each gone _15 +To his dwelling; +Come, Months, come away; +Put on white, black, and gray; +Let your light sisters play-- +Ye, follow the bier _20 +Of the dead cold Year, +And make her grave green with tear on tear. + +*** + + +THE WANING MOON. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +And like a dying lady, lean and pale, +Who totters forth, wrapped in a gauzy veil, +Out of her chamber, led by the insane +And feeble wanderings of her fading brain, +The moon arose up in the murky East, _5 +A white and shapeless mass-- + +*** + + +TO THE MOON. + +[Published (1) by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824, (2) by W.M. +Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works", 1870.] + +1. +Art thou pale for weariness +Of climbing heaven and gazing on the earth, +Wandering companionless +Among the stars that have a different birth,-- +And ever changing, like a joyless eye _5 +That finds no object worth its constancy? + +2. +Thou chosen sister of the Spirit, +That grazes on thee till in thee it pities... + +*** + + +DEATH. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +1. +Death is here and death is there, +Death is busy everywhere, +All around, within, beneath, +Above is death--and we are death. + +2. +Death has set his mark and seal _5 +On all we are and all we feel, +On all we know and all we fear, + +... + +3. +First our pleasures die--and then +Our hopes, and then our fears--and when +These are dead, the debt is due, _10 +Dust claims dust--and we die too. + +4. +All things that we love and cherish, +Like ourselves must fade and perish; +Such is our rude mortal lot-- +Love itself would, did they not. _15 + +*** + + +LIBERTY. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +1. +The fiery mountains answer each other; +Their thunderings are echoed from zone to zone; +The tempestuous oceans awake one another, +And the ice-rocks are shaken round Winter's throne, +When the clarion of the Typhoon is blown. _5 + +2. +From a single cloud the lightening flashes, +Whilst a thousand isles are illumined around, +Earthquake is trampling one city to ashes, +An hundred are shuddering and tottering; the sound +Is bellowing underground. _10 + +3. +But keener thy gaze than the lightening's glare, +And swifter thy step than the earthquake's tramp; +Thou deafenest the rage of the ocean; thy stare +Makes blind the volcanoes; the sun's bright lamp +To thine is a fen-fire damp. _15 + +4. +From billow and mountain and exhalation +The sunlight is darted through vapour and blast; +From spirit to spirit, from nation to nation, +From city to hamlet thy dawning is cast,-- +And tyrants and slaves are like shadows of night _20 +In the van of the morning light. + +NOTE: +_4 zone editions 1824, 1839; throne later editions. + +*** + + +SUMMER AND WINTER. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley in "The Keepsake", 1829. Mr. C.W. +Frederickson of Brooklyn possesses a transcript in Mrs. Shelley's +handwriting.] + +It was a bright and cheerful afternoon, +Towards the end of the sunny month of June, +When the north wind congregates in crowds +The floating mountains of the silver clouds +From the horizon--and the stainless sky _5 +Opens beyond them like eternity. +All things rejoiced beneath the sun; the weeds, +The river, and the corn-fields, and the reeds; +The willow leaves that glanced in the light breeze, +And the firm foliage of the larger trees. _10 + +It was a winter such as when birds die +In the deep forests; and the fishes lie +Stiffened in the translucent ice, which makes +Even the mud and slime of the warm lakes +A wrinkled clod as hard as brick; and when, _15 +Among their children, comfortable men +Gather about great fires, and yet feel cold: +Alas, then, for the homeless beggar old! + +NOTE: +_11 birds die 1839; birds do die 1829. + +*** + + +THE TOWER OF FAMINE. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley in "The Keepsake", 1829. Mr. C.W. +Frederickson of Brooklyn possesses a transcript in Mrs. Shelley's +handwriting.] + +Amid the desolation of a city, +Which was the cradle, and is now the grave +Of an extinguished people,--so that Pity + +Weeps o'er the shipwrecks of Oblivion's wave, +There stands the Tower of Famine. It is built _5 +Upon some prison-homes, whose dwellers rave + +For bread, and gold, and blood: Pain, linked to Guilt, +Agitates the light flame of their hours, +Until its vital oil is spent or spilt. + +There stands the pile, a tower amid the towers _10 +And sacred domes; each marble-ribbed roof, +The brazen-gated temples, and the bowers + +Of solitary wealth,--the tempest-proof +Pavilions of the dark Italian air,-- +Are by its presence dimmed--they stand aloof, _15 + +And are withdrawn--so that the world is bare; +As if a spectre wrapped in shapeless terror +Amid a company of ladies fair + +Should glide and glow, till it became a mirror +Of all their beauty, and their hair and hue, _20 +The life of their sweet eyes, with all its error, +Should be absorbed, till they to marble grew. + +NOTE: +_7 For]With 1829. + +*** + + +AN ALLEGORY. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +1. +A portal as of shadowy adamant +Stands yawning on the highway of the life +Which we all tread, a cavern huge and gaunt; +Around it rages an unceasing strife +Of shadows, like the restless clouds that haunt _5 +The gap of some cleft mountain, lifted high +Into the whirlwinds of the upper sky. + +2. +And many pass it by with careless tread, +Not knowing that a shadowy ... +Tracks every traveller even to where the dead _10 +Wait peacefully for their companion new; +But others, by more curious humour led, +Pause to examine;--these are very few, +And they learn little there, except to know +That shadows follow them where'er they go. _15 + +NOTE: +_8 pass Rossetti; passed editions 1824, 1839. + +*** + + +THE WORLD'S WANDERERS. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +1. +Tell me, thou Star, whose wings of light +Speed thee in thy fiery flight, +In what cavern of the night +Will thy pinions close now? + +2. +Tell me, Moon, thou pale and gray _5 +Pilgrim of Heaven's homeless way, +In what depth of night or day +Seekest thou repose now? + +3. +Weary Wind, who wanderest +Like the world's rejected guest, _10 +Hast thou still some secret nest +On the tree or billow? + +*** + + +SONNET. + +[Published by Leigh Hunt, "The Literary Pocket-Book", 1823. There is a +transcript amongst the Ollier manuscripts, and another in the Harvard +manuscript book.] + +Ye hasten to the grave! What seek ye there, +Ye restless thoughts and busy purposes +Of the idle brain, which the world's livery wear? +O thou quick heart, which pantest to possess +All that pale Expectation feigneth fair! _5 +Thou vainly curious mind which wouldest guess +Whence thou didst come, and whither thou must go, +And all that never yet was known would know-- +Oh, whither hasten ye, that thus ye press, +With such swift feet life's green and pleasant path, _10 +Seeking, alike from happiness and woe, +A refuge in the cavern of gray death? +O heart, and mind, and thoughts! what thing do you +Hope to inherit in the grave below? + +NOTE: +_1 grave Ollier manuscript; + dead Harvard manuscript, 1823, editions 1824, 1839. +_5 pale Expectation Ollier manuscript; + anticipation Harvard manuscript, 1823, editions 1824, 1839. +_7 must Harvard manuscript, 1823; mayst 1824; mayest editions 1839. +_8 all that Harvard manuscript, 1823; that which editions 1824, 1839. + would Harvard manuscript, 1823; wouldst editions 1839. + +*** + + +LINES TO A REVIEWER. + +[Published by Leigh Hunt, "The Literary Pocket-Book", 1823. These +lines, and the "Sonnet" immediately preceding, are signed Sigma in the +"Literary Pocket-Book".] + +Alas, good friend, what profit can you see +In hating such a hateless thing as me? +There is no sport in hate where all the rage +Is on one side: in vain would you assuage +Your frowns upon an unresisting smile, _5 +In which not even contempt lurks to beguile +Your heart, by some faint sympathy of hate. +Oh, conquer what you cannot satiate! +For to your passion I am far more coy +Than ever yet was coldest maid or boy _10 +In winter noon. Of your antipathy +If I am the Narcissus, you are free +To pine into a sound with hating me. + +NOTE: +_3 where editions 1824, 1839; when 1823. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT OF A SATIRE ON SATIRE. + +[Published by Edward Dowden, "Correspondence of Robert Southey and +Caroline Bowles", 1880.] + +If gibbets, axes, confiscations, chains, +And racks of subtle torture, if the pains +Of shame, of fiery Hell's tempestuous wave, +Seen through the caverns of the shadowy grave, +Hurling the damned into the murky air _5 +While the meek blest sit smiling; if Despair +And Hate, the rapid bloodhounds with which Terror +Hunts through the world the homeless steps of Error, +Are the true secrets of the commonweal +To make men wise and just;... _10 +And not the sophisms of revenge and fear, +Bloodier than is revenge... +Then send the priests to every hearth and home +To preach the burning wrath which is to come, +In words like flakes of sulphur, such as thaw _15 +The frozen tears... +If Satire's scourge could wake the slumbering hounds +Of Conscience, or erase the deeper wounds, +The leprous scars of callous Infamy; +If it could make the present not to be, _20 +Or charm the dark past never to have been, +Or turn regret to hope; who that has seen +What Southey is and was, would not exclaim, +'Lash on!' ... be the keen verse dipped in flame; +Follow his flight with winged words, and urge _25 +The strokes of the inexorable scourge +Until the heart be naked, till his soul +See the contagion's spots ... foul; +And from the mirror of Truth's sunlike shield, +From which his Parthian arrow... _30 +Flash on his sight the spectres of the past, +Until his mind's eye paint thereon-- +Let scorn like ... yawn below, +And rain on him like flakes of fiery snow. +This cannot be, it ought not, evil still-- _35 +Suffering makes suffering, ill must follow ill. +Rough words beget sad thoughts, ... and, beside, +Men take a sullen and a stupid pride +In being all they hate in others' shame, +By a perverse antipathy of fame. _40 +'Tis not worth while to prove, as I could, how +From the sweet fountains of our Nature flow +These bitter waters; I will only say, +If any friend would take Southey some day, +And tell him, in a country walk alone, _45 +Softening harsh words with friendship's gentle tone, +How incorrect his public conduct is, +And what men think of it, 'twere not amiss. +Far better than to make innocent ink-- + +*** + + +GOOD-NIGHT. + +[Published by Leigh Hunt over the signature Sigma, "The Literary +Pocket-Book", 1822. It is included in the Harvard manuscript book, and +there is a transcript by Shelley in a copy of "The Literary +Pocket-Book", 1819, presented by him to Miss Sophia Stacey, December +29, 1820. (See "Love's Philosophy" and "Time Long Past".) Our text is +that of the editio princeps, 1822, with which the Harvard manuscript +and "Posthumous Poems", 1824, agree. The variants of the Stacey +manuscript, 1820, are given in the footnotes.] + +1. +Good-night? ah! no; the hour is ill +Which severs those it should unite; +Let us remain together still, +Then it will be GOOD night. + +2. +How can I call the lone night good, _5 +Though thy sweet wishes wing its flight? +Be it not said, thought, understood-- +Then it will be--GOOD night. + +3. +To hearts which near each other move +From evening close to morning light, _10 +The night is good; because, my love, +They never SAY good-night. + +NOTES: +_1 Good-night? no, love! the night is ill Stacey manuscript. +_5 How were the night without thee good Stacey manuscript. +_9 The hearts that on each other beat Stacey manuscript. +_11 Have nights as good as they are sweet Stacey manuscript. +_12 But never SAY good night Stacey manuscript. + +*** + + +BUONA NOTTE. + +[Published by Medwin, "The Angler in Wales, or Days and Nights of +Sportsmen", 1834. The text is revised by Rossetti from the Boscombe +manuscript.] + +1. +'Buona notte, buona notte!'--Come mai +La notte sara buona senza te? +Non dirmi buona notte,--che tu sai, +La notte sa star buona da per se. + +2. +Solinga, scura, cupa, senza speme, _5 +La notte quando Lilla m'abbandona; +Pei cuori chi si batton insieme +Ogni notte, senza dirla, sara buona. + +3. +Come male buona notte ci suona +Con sospiri e parole interrotte!-- _10 +Il modo di aver la notte buona +E mai non di dir la buona notte. + +NOTES: +_2 sara]sia 1834. +_4 buona]bene 1834. +_9 Come]Quanto 1834. + +*** + + +ORPHEUS. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862; revised and +enlarged by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870.] + +A: +Not far from hence. From yonder pointed hill, +Crowned with a ring of oaks, you may behold +A dark and barren field, through which there flows, +Sluggish and black, a deep but narrow stream, +Which the wind ripples not, and the fair moon _5 +Gazes in vain, and finds no mirror there. +Follow the herbless banks of that strange brook +Until you pause beside a darksome pond, +The fountain of this rivulet, whose gush +Cannot be seen, hid by a rayless night _10 +That lives beneath the overhanging rock +That shades the pool--an endless spring of gloom, +Upon whose edge hovers the tender light, +Trembling to mingle with its paramour,-- +But, as Syrinx fled Pan, so night flies day, _15 +Or, with most sullen and regardless hate, +Refuses stern her heaven-born embrace. +On one side of this jagged and shapeless hill +There is a cave, from which there eddies up +A pale mist, like aereal gossamer, _20 +Whose breath destroys all life--awhile it veils +The rock--then, scattered by the wind, it flies +Along the stream, or lingers on the clefts, +Killing the sleepy worms, if aught bide there. +Upon the beetling edge of that dark rock _25 +There stands a group of cypresses; not such +As, with a graceful spire and stirring life, +Pierce the pure heaven of your native vale, +Whose branches the air plays among, but not +Disturbs, fearing to spoil their solemn grace; _30 +But blasted and all wearily they stand, +One to another clinging; their weak boughs +Sigh as the wind buffets them, and they shake +Beneath its blasts--a weatherbeaten crew! + +CHORUS: +What wondrous sound is that, mournful and faint, _35 +But more melodious than the murmuring wind +Which through the columns of a temple glides? + +A: +It is the wandering voice of Orpheus' lyre, +Borne by the winds, who sigh that their rude king +Hurries them fast from these air-feeding notes; _40 +But in their speed they bear along with them +The waning sound, scattering it like dew +Upon the startled sense. + +CHORUS: +Does he still sing? +Methought he rashly cast away his harp +When he had lost Eurydice. + +A: +Ah, no! _45 +Awhile he paused. As a poor hunted stag +A moment shudders on the fearful brink +Of a swift stream--the cruel hounds press on +With deafening yell, the arrows glance and wound,-- +He plunges in: so Orpheus, seized and torn _50 +By the sharp fangs of an insatiate grief, +Maenad-like waved his lyre in the bright air, +And wildly shrieked 'Where she is, it is dark!' +And then he struck from forth the strings a sound +Of deep and fearful melody. Alas! _55 +In times long past, when fair Eurydice +With her bright eyes sat listening by his side, +He gently sang of high and heavenly themes. +As in a brook, fretted with little waves +By the light airs of spring--each riplet makes _60 +A many-sided mirror for the sun, +While it flows musically through green banks, +Ceaseless and pauseless, ever clear and fresh, +So flowed his song, reflecting the deep joy +And tender love that fed those sweetest notes, _65 +The heavenly offspring of ambrosial food. +But that is past. Returning from drear Hell, +He chose a lonely seat of unhewn stone, +Blackened with lichens, on a herbless plain. +Then from the deep and overflowing spring _70 +Of his eternal ever-moving grief +There rose to Heaven a sound of angry song. +'Tis as a mighty cataract that parts +Two sister rocks with waters swift and strong, _75 +And casts itself with horrid roar and din +Adown a steep; from a perennial source +It ever flows and falls, and breaks the air +With loud and fierce, but most harmonious roar, +And as it falls casts up a vaporous spray +Which the sun clothes in hues of Iris light. _80 +Thus the tempestuous torrent of his grief +Is clothed in sweetest sounds and varying words +Of poesy. Unlike all human works, +It never slackens, and through every change +Wisdom and beauty and the power divine _85 +Of mighty poesy together dwell, +Mingling in sweet accord. As I have seen +A fierce south blast tear through the darkened sky, +Driving along a rack of winged clouds, +Which may not pause, but ever hurry on, _90 +As their wild shepherd wills them, while the stars, +Twinkling and dim, peep from between the plumes. +Anon the sky is cleared, and the high dome +Of serene Heaven, starred with fiery flowers, +Shuts in the shaken earth; or the still moon _95 +Swiftly, yet gracefully, begins her walk, +Rising all bright behind the eastern hills. +I talk of moon, and wind, and stars, and not +Of song; but, would I echo his high song, +Nature must lend me words ne'er used before, _100 +Or I must borrow from her perfect works, +To picture forth his perfect attributes. +He does no longer sit upon his throne +Of rock upon a desert herbless plain, +For the evergreen and knotted ilexes, _105 +And cypresses that seldom wave their boughs, +And sea-green olives with their grateful fruit, +And elms dragging along the twisted vines, +Which drop their berries as they follow fast, +And blackthorn bushes with their infant race _110 +Of blushing rose-blooms; beeches, to lovers dear, +And weeping willow trees; all swift or slow, +As their huge boughs or lighter dress permit, +Have circled in his throne, and Earth herself +Has sent from her maternal breast a growth _115 +Of starlike flowers and herbs of odour sweet, +To pave the temple that his poesy +Has framed, while near his feet grim lions couch, +And kids, fearless from love, creep near his lair. +Even the blind worms seem to feel the sound. _120 +The birds are silent, hanging down their heads, +Perched on the lowest branches of the trees; +Not even the nightingale intrudes a note +In rivalry, but all entranced she listens. + +NOTES: +_16, _17, _24 1870 only. +_45-_55 Ah, no!... melody 1870 only. +_66 1870 only. +_112 trees 1870; too 1862. +_113 huge 1870; long 1862. +_116 starlike 1870; starry 1862. odour 1862; odours 1870. + +*** + + +FIORDISPINA. + +[Published in part (lines 11-30) by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", +1824; in full (from the Boscombe manuscript) by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of +Shelley", 1862.] + +The season was the childhood of sweet June, +Whose sunny hours from morning until noon +Went creeping through the day with silent feet, +Each with its load of pleasure; slow yet sweet; +Like the long years of blest Eternity _5 +Never to be developed. Joy to thee, +Fiordispina and thy Cosimo, +For thou the wonders of the depth canst know +Of this unfathomable flood of hours, +Sparkling beneath the heaven which embowers-- _10 + +... + +They were two cousins, almost like to twins, +Except that from the catalogue of sins +Nature had rased their love--which could not be +But by dissevering their nativity. +And so they grew together like two flowers _15 +Upon one stem, which the same beams and showers +Lull or awaken in their purple prime, +Which the same hand will gather--the same clime +Shake with decay. This fair day smiles to see +All those who love--and who e'er loved like thee, _20 +Fiordispina? Scarcely Cosimo, +Within whose bosom and whose brain now glow +The ardours of a vision which obscure +The very idol of its portraiture. +He faints, dissolved into a sea of love; _25 +But thou art as a planet sphered above; +But thou art Love itself--ruling the motion +Of his subjected spirit: such emotion +Must end in sin and sorrow, if sweet May +Had not brought forth this morn--your wedding-day. _30 + +... + +'Lie there; sleep awhile in your own dew, +Ye faint-eyed children of the ... Hours,' +Fiordispina said, and threw the flowers +Which she had from the breathing-- + +... + +A table near of polished porphyry. _35 +They seemed to wear a beauty from the eye +That looked on them--a fragrance from the touch +Whose warmth ... checked their life; a light such +As sleepers wear, lulled by the voice they love, which did reprove _40 +The childish pity that she felt for them, +And a ... remorse that from their stem +She had divided such fair shapes ... made +A feeling in the ... which was a shade +Of gentle beauty on the flowers: there lay _45 +All gems that make the earth's dark bosom gay. +... rods of myrtle-buds and lemon-blooms, +And that leaf tinted lightly which assumes +The livery of unremembered snow-- +Violets whose eyes have drunk-- _50 + +... + +Fiordispina and her nurse are now +Upon the steps of the high portico, +Under the withered arm of Media +She flings her glowing arm + +... + +... step by step and stair by stair, _55 +That withered woman, gray and white and brown-- +More like a trunk by lichens overgrown +Than anything which once could have been human. +And ever as she goes the palsied woman + +... + +'How slow and painfully you seem to walk, _60 +Poor Media! you tire yourself with talk.' +'And well it may, +Fiordispina, dearest--well-a-day! +You are hastening to a marriage-bed; +I to the grave!'--'And if my love were dead, _65 +Unless my heart deceives me, I would lie +Beside him in my shroud as willingly +As now in the gay night-dress Lilla wrought.' +'Fie, child! Let that unseasonable thought +Not be remembered till it snows in June; _70 +Such fancies are a music out of tune +With the sweet dance your heart must keep to-night. +What! would you take all beauty and delight +Back to the Paradise from which you sprung, +And leave to grosser mortals?-- _75 +And say, sweet lamb, would you not learn the sweet +And subtle mystery by which spirits meet? +Who knows whether the loving game is played, +When, once of mortal [vesture] disarrayed, +The naked soul goes wandering here and there _80 +Through the wide deserts of Elysian air? +The violet dies not till it'-- + +NOTES: +_11 to 1824; two editions 1839. +_20 e'er 1862; ever editions 1824, 1839. +_25 sea edition 1862; sense editions 1824, 1839. + +*** + + +TIME LONG PAST. + +[Published by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870. +This is one of three poems (cf. "Love's Philosophy" and "Good-Night") +transcribed by Shelley in a copy of Leigh Hunt's "Literary Pocket-Book" +for 1819 presented by him to Miss Sophia Stacey, December 29, 1820.] + +1. +Like the ghost of a dear friend dead +Is Time long past. +A tone which is now forever fled, +A hope which is now forever past, +A love so sweet it could not last, _5 +Was Time long past. + +2. +There were sweet dreams in the night +Of Time long past: +And, was it sadness or delight, +Each day a shadow onward cast _10 +Which made us wish it yet might last-- +That Time long past. + +3. +There is regret, almost remorse, +For Time long past. +'Tis like a child's beloved corse _15 +A father watches, till at last +Beauty is like remembrance, cast +From Time long past. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: THE DESERTS OF DIM SLEEP. + +[Published by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870.] + +I went into the deserts of dim sleep-- +That world which, like an unknown wilderness, +Bounds this with its recesses wide and deep-- + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'THE VIEWLESS AND INVISIBLE CONSEQUENCE'. + +[Published by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870.] + +The viewless and invisible Consequence +Watches thy goings-out, and comings-in, +And...hovers o'er thy guilty sleep, +Unveiling every new-born deed, and thoughts +More ghastly than those deeds-- _5 + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: A SERPENT-FACE. + +[Published by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870.] + +His face was like a snake's--wrinkled and loose +And withered-- + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: DEATH IN LIFE. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +My head is heavy, my limbs are weary, +And it is not life that makes me move. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'SUCH HOPE, AS IS THE SICK DESPAIR OF GOOD'. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +Such hope, as is the sick despair of good, +Such fear, as is the certainty of ill, +Such doubt, as is pale Expectation's food +Turned while she tastes to poison, when the will +Is powerless, and the spirit... _5 + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'ALAS! THIS IS NOT WHAT I THOUGHT LIFE WAS'. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition. This +fragment is joined by Forman with that immediately preceding.] + +Alas! this is not what I thought life was. +I knew that there were crimes and evil men, +Misery and hate; nor did I hope to pass +Untouched by suffering, through the rugged glen. +In mine own heart I saw as in a glass _5 +The hearts of others ... And when +I went among my kind, with triple brass +Of calm endurance my weak breast I armed, +To bear scorn, fear, and hate, a woful mass! + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: MILTON'S SPIRIT. + +[Published by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870.] + +I dreamed that Milton's spirit rose, and took +From life's green tree his Uranian lute; +And from his touch sweet thunder flowed, and shook +All human things built in contempt of man,-- +And sanguine thrones and impious altars quaked, _5 +Prisons and citadels... + +NOTE: +_2 lute Uranian cj. A.C. Bradley. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'UNRISEN SPLENDOUR OF THE BRIGHTEST SUN'. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +Unrisen splendour of the brightest sun, +To rise upon our darkness, if the star +Now beckoning thee out of thy misty throne +Could thaw the clouds which wage an obscure war +With thy young brightness! _5 + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: PATER OMNIPOTENS. + +[Edited from manuscript Shelley E 4 in the Bodleian Library, and +published by Mr. C.D. Locock, "Examination" etc., Oxford, Clarendon +Press, 1903. Here placed conjecturally amongst the compositions of +1820, but of uncertain date, and belonging possibly to 1819 or a still +earlier year.] + +Serene in his unconquerable might +Endued[,] the Almighty King, his steadfast throne +Encompassed unapproachably with power +And darkness and deep solitude an awe +Stood like a black cloud on some aery cliff _5 +Embosoming its lightning--in his sight +Unnumbered glorious spirits trembling stood +Like slaves before their Lord--prostrate around +Heaven's multitudes hymned everlasting praise. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: TO THE MIND OF MAN. + +[Edited, published and here placed as the preceding.] + +Thou living light that in thy rainbow hues +Clothest this naked world; and over Sea +And Earth and air, and all the shapes that be +In peopled darkness of this wondrous world +The Spirit of thy glory dost diffuse _5 +... truth ... thou Vital Flame +Mysterious thought that in this mortal frame +Of things, with unextinguished lustre burnest +Now pale and faint now high to Heaven upcurled +That eer as thou dost languish still returnest _10 +And ever +Before the ... before the Pyramids + +So soon as from the Earth formless and rude +One living step had chased drear Solitude +Thou wert, Thought; thy brightness charmed the lids _15 +Of the vast snake Eternity, who kept +The tree of good and evil.-- + +*** + + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1820, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +We spent the latter part of the year 1819 in Florence, where Shelley +passed several hours daily in the Gallery, and made various notes on +its ancient works of art. His thoughts were a good deal taken up also +by the project of a steamboat, undertaken by a friend, an engineer, to +ply between Leghorn and Marseilles, for which he supplied a sum of +money. This was a sort of plan to delight Shelley, and he was greatly +disappointed when it was thrown aside. + +There was something in Florence that disagreed excessively with his +health, and he suffered far more pain than usual; so much so that we +left it sooner than we intended, and removed to Pisa, where we had some +friends, and, above all, where we could consult the celebrated Vacca as +to the cause of Shelley's sufferings. He, like every other medical man, +could only guess at that, and gave little hope of immediate relief; he +enjoined him to abstain from all physicians and medicine, and to leave +his complaint to Nature. As he had vainly consulted medical men of the +highest repute in England, he was easily persuaded to adopt this +advice. Pain and ill-health followed him to the end; but the residence +at Pisa agreed with him better than any other, and there in consequence +we remained. + +In the Spring we spent a week or two near Leghorn, borrowing the house +of some friends who were absent on a journey to England. It was on a +beautiful summer evening, while wandering among the lanes whose +myrtle-hedges were the bowers of the fire-flies, that we heard the +carolling of the skylark which inspired one of the most beautiful of +his poems. He addressed the letter to Mrs. Gisborne from this house, +which was hers: he had made his study of the workshop of her son, who +was an engineer. Mrs. Gisborne had been a friend of my father in her +younger days. She was a lady of great accomplishments, and charming +from her frank and affectionate nature. She had the most intense love +of knowledge, a delicate and trembling sensibility, and preserved +freshness of mind after a life of considerable adversity. As a +favourite friend of my father, we had sought her with eagerness; and +the most open and cordial friendship was established between us. + +Our stay at the Baths of San Giuliano was shortened by an accident. At +the foot of our garden ran the canal that communicated between the +Serchio and the Arno. The Serchio overflowed its banks, and, breaking +its bounds, this canal also overflowed; all this part of the country is +below the level of its rivers, and the consequence was that it was +speedily flooded. The rising waters filled the Square of the Baths, in +the lower part of which our house was situated. The canal overflowed in +the garden behind; the rising waters on either side at last burst open +the doors, and, meeting in the house, rose to the height of six feet. +It was a picturesque sight at night to see the peasants driving the +cattle from the plains below to the hills above the Baths. A fire was +kept up to guide them across the ford; and the forms of the men and the +animals showed in dark relief against the red glare of the flame, which +was reflected again in the waters that filled the Square. + +We then removed to Pisa, and took up our abode there for the winter. +The extreme mildness of the climate suited Shelley, and his solitude +was enlivened by an intercourse with several intimate friends. Chance +cast us strangely enough on this quiet half-unpeopled town; but its +very peace suited Shelley. Its river, the near mountains, and not +distant sea, added to its attractions, and were the objects of many +delightful excursions. We feared the south of Italy, and a hotter +climate, on account of our child; our former bereavement inspiring us +with terror. We seemed to take root here, and moved little afterwards; +often, indeed, entertaining projects for visiting other parts of Italy, +but still delaying. But for our fears on account of our child, I +believe we should have wandered over the world, both being passionately +fond of travelling. But human life, besides its great unalterable +necessities, is ruled by a thousand lilliputian ties that shackle at +the time, although it is difficult to account afterwards for their +influence over our destiny. + +*** + + +POEMS WRITTEN IN 1821. + + +DIRGE FOR THE YEAR. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824, and dated +January 1, 1821.] + +1. +Orphan Hours, the Year is dead, +Come and sigh, come and weep! +Merry Hours, smile instead, +For the Year is but asleep. +See, it smiles as it is sleeping, _5 +Mocking your untimely weeping. + +2. +As an earthquake rocks a corse +In its coffin in the clay, +So White Winter, that rough nurse, +Rocks the death-cold Year to-day; _10 +Solemn Hours! wail aloud +For your mother in her shroud. + +3. +As the wild air stirs and sways +The tree-swung cradle of a child, +So the breath of these rude days _15 +Rocks the Year:--be calm and mild, +Trembling Hours, she will arise +With new love within her eyes. + +4. +January gray is here, +Like a sexton by her grave; _20 +February bears the bier, +March with grief doth howl and rave, +And April weeps--but, O ye Hours! +Follow with May's fairest flowers. + +*** + + +TO NIGHT. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824. +There is a transcript in the Harvard manuscript book.] + +1. +Swiftly walk o'er the western wave, +Spirit of Night! +Out of the misty eastern cave, +Where, all the long and lone daylight, +Thou wovest dreams of joy and fear, _5 +'Which make thee terrible and dear,-- +Swift be thy flight! + +2. +Wrap thy form in a mantle gray, +Star-inwrought! +Blind with thine hair the eyes of Day; _10 +Kiss her until she be wearied out, +Then wander o'er city, and sea, and land, +Touching all with thine opiate wand-- +Come, long-sought! + +3. +When I arose and saw the dawn, _15 +I sighed for thee; +When light rode high, and the dew was gone, +And noon lay heavy on flower and tree, +And the weary Day turned to his rest, +Lingering like an unloved guest, I sighed for thee. _20 + +4. +Thy brother Death came, and cried, +Wouldst thou me? +Thy sweet child Sleep, the filmy-eyed, +Murmured like a noontide bee, _25 +Shall I nestle near thy side? +Wouldst thou me?--And I replied, +No, not thee! + +5. +Death will come when thou art dead, +Soon, too soon-- _30 +Sleep will come when thou art fled; +Of neither would I ask the boon +I ask of thee, beloved Night-- +Swift be thine approaching flight, +Come soon, soon! _35 + +NOTE: +_1 o'er Harvard manuscript; over editions 1824, 1839. + +*** + + +TIME. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +Unfathomable Sea! whose waves are years, +Ocean of Time, whose waters of deep woe +Are brackish with the salt of human tears! +Thou shoreless flood, which in thy ebb and flow +Claspest the limits of mortality, _5 +And sick of prey, yet howling on for more, +Vomitest thy wrecks on its inhospitable shore; +Treacherous in calm, and terrible in storm, +Who shall put forth on thee, +Unfathomable Sea? _10 + +*** + + +LINES. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +1. +Far, far away, O ye +Halcyons of Memory, +Seek some far calmer nest +Than this abandoned breast! +No news of your false spring _5 +To my heart's winter bring, +Once having gone, in vain +Ye come again. + +2. +Vultures, who build your bowers +High in the Future's towers, _10 +Withered hopes on hopes are spread! +Dying joys, choked by the dead, +Will serve your beaks for prey +Many a day. + +*** + + +FROM THE ARABIC: AN IMITATION. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824. There is an +intermediate draft amongst the Bodleian manuscripts. See Locock, +"Examination", etc., 1903, page 13.] + +1. +My faint spirit was sitting in the light +Of thy looks, my love; +It panted for thee like the hind at noon +For the brooks, my love. +Thy barb whose hoofs outspeed the tempest's flight _5 +Bore thee far from me; +My heart, for my weak feet were weary soon, +Did companion thee. + +2. +Ah! fleeter far than fleetest storm or steed +Or the death they bear, _10 +The heart which tender thought clothes like a dove +With the wings of care; +In the battle, in the darkness, in the need, +Shall mine cling to thee, +Nor claim one smile for all the comfort, love, _15 +It may bring to thee. + +NOTES: +_3 hoofs]feet B. +_7 were]grew B. +_9 Ah!]O B. + +*** + + +TO EMILIA VIVIANI. + +[Published, (1) by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824; (2, 1) by +Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862; (2, 2 and 3) by H. Buxton +Forman, "Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1876.] + +1. +Madonna, wherefore hast thou sent to me +Sweet-basil and mignonette? +Embleming love and health, which never yet +In the same wreath might be. +Alas, and they are wet! _5 +Is it with thy kisses or thy tears? +For never rain or dew +Such fragrance drew +From plant or flower--the very doubt endears +My sadness ever new, _10 +The sighs I breathe, the tears I shed for thee. + +2. +Send the stars light, but send not love to me, +In whom love ever made +Health like a heap of embers soon to fade-- + +*** + + +THE FUGITIVES. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems". 1824.] + +1. +The waters are flashing, +The white hail is dashing, +The lightnings are glancing, +The hoar-spray is dancing-- +Away! _5 + +The whirlwind is rolling, +The thunder is tolling, +The forest is swinging, +The minster bells ringing-- +Come away! _10 + +The Earth is like Ocean, +Wreck-strewn and in motion: +Bird, beast, man and worm +Have crept out of the storm-- +Come away! _15 + +2. +'Our boat has one sail +And the helmsman is pale;-- +A bold pilot I trow, +Who should follow us now,'-- +Shouted he-- _20 + +And she cried: 'Ply the oar! +Put off gaily from shore!'-- +As she spoke, bolts of death +Mixed with hail, specked their path +O'er the sea. _25 + +And from isle, tower and rock, +The blue beacon-cloud broke, +And though dumb in the blast, +The red cannon flashed fast +From the lee. _30 + +3. +And 'Fear'st thou?' and 'Fear'st thou?' +And Seest thou?' and 'Hear'st thou?' +And 'Drive we not free +O'er the terrible sea, +I and thou?' _35 + +One boat-cloak did cover +The loved and the lover-- +Their blood beats one measure, +They murmur proud pleasure +Soft and low;-- _40 + +While around the lashed Ocean, +Like mountains in motion, +Is withdrawn and uplifted, +Sunk, shattered and shifted +To and fro. _45 + +4. +In the court of the fortress +Beside the pale portress, +Like a bloodhound well beaten +The bridegroom stands, eaten +By shame; _50 + +On the topmost watch-turret, +As a death-boding spirit +Stands the gray tyrant father, +To his voice the mad weather +Seems tame; _55 + +And with curses as wild +As e'er clung to child, +He devotes to the blast, +The best, loveliest and last +Of his name! _60 + +NOTES: +_28 And though]Though editions 1839. +_57 clung]cling editions 1839. + +*** + + +TO --. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +Music, when soft voices die, +Vibrates in the memory-- +Odours, when sweet violets sicken, +Live within the sense they quicken. + +Rose leaves, when the rose is dead, _5 +Are heaped for the beloved's bed; +And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone, +Love itself shall slumber on. + +*** + + +SONG. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824. +There is a transcript in the Harvard manuscript book.] + +1. +Rarely, rarely, comest thou, +Spirit of Delight! +Wherefore hast thou left me now +Many a day and night? +Many a weary night and day _5 +'Tis since thou art fled away. + +2. +How shall ever one like me +Win thee back again? +With the joyous and the free +Thou wilt scoff at pain. _10 +Spirit false! thou hast forgot +All but those who need thee not. + +3. +As a lizard with the shade +Of a trembling leaf, +Thou with sorrow art dismayed; _15 +Even the sighs of grief +Reproach thee, that thou art not near, +And reproach thou wilt not hear. + +4. +Let me set my mournful ditty +To a merry measure; _20 +Thou wilt never come for pity, +Thou wilt come for pleasure; +Pity then will cut away +Those cruel wings, and thou wilt stay. + +5. +I love all that thou lovest, _25 +Spirit of Delight! +The fresh Earth in new leaves dressed, +And the starry night; +Autumn evening, and the morn +When the golden mists are born. _30 + +6. +I love snow, and all the forms +Of the radiant frost; +I love waves, and winds, and storms, +Everything almost +Which is Nature's, and may be _35 +Untainted by man's misery. + +7. +I love tranquil solitude, +And such society +As is quiet, wise, and good +Between thee and me _40 +What difference? but thou dost possess +The things I seek, not love them less. + +8. +I love Love--though he has wings, +And like light can flee, +But above all other things, _45 +Spirit, I love thee-- +Thou art love and life! Oh, come, +Make once more my heart thy home. + +*** + + +MUTABILITY. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824. +There is a fair draft amongst the Boscombe manuscripts.] + +1. +The flower that smiles to-day +To-morrow dies; +All that we wish to stay +Tempts and then flies. +What is this world's delight? _5 +Lightning that mocks the night, +Brief even as bright. + +2. +Virtue, how frail it is! +Friendship how rare! +Love, how it sells poor bliss _10 +For proud despair! +But we, though soon they fall, +Survive their joy, and all +Which ours we call. + +3. +Whilst skies are blue and bright, _15 +Whilst flowers are gay, +Whilst eyes that change ere night +Make glad the day; +Whilst yet the calm hours creep, +Dream thou--and from thy sleep _20 +Then wake to weep. + +NOTES: +_9 how Boscombe manuscript; too editions 1824, 1839. +_12 though soon they fall]though soon we or so soon they cj. Rossetti. + +*** + + +LINES WRITTEN ON HEARING THE NEWS OF THE DEATH OF NAPOLEON. + +[Published with "Hellas", 1821.] + +What! alive and so bold, O Earth? +Art thou not overbold? +What! leapest thou forth as of old +In the light of thy morning mirth, +The last of the flock of the starry fold? _5 +Ha! leapest thou forth as of old? +Are not the limbs still when the ghost is fled, +And canst thou move, Napoleon being dead? + +How! is not thy quick heart cold? +What spark is alive on thy hearth? _10 +How! is not HIS death-knell knolled? +And livest THOU still, Mother Earth? +Thou wert warming thy fingers old +O'er the embers covered and cold +Of that most fiery spirit, when it fled-- _15 +What, Mother, do you laugh now he is dead? + +'Who has known me of old,' replied Earth, +'Or who has my story told? +It is thou who art overbold.' +And the lightning of scorn laughed forth _20 +As she sung, 'To my bosom I fold +All my sons when their knell is knolled, +And so with living motion all are fed, +And the quick spring like weeds out of the dead. + +'Still alive and still bold,' shouted Earth, _25 +'I grow bolder and still more bold. +The dead fill me ten thousandfold +Fuller of speed, and splendour, and mirth. +I was cloudy, and sullen, and cold, +Like a frozen chaos uprolled, _30 +Till by the spirit of the mighty dead +My heart grew warm. I feed on whom I fed. + +'Ay, alive and still bold.' muttered Earth, +'Napoleon's fierce spirit rolled, +In terror and blood and gold, _35 +A torrent of ruin to death from his birth. +Leave the millions who follow to mould +The metal before it be cold; +And weave into his shame, which like the dead +Shrouds me, the hopes that from his glory fled.' _40 + +*** + + +SONNET: POLITICAL GREATNESS. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824. There is a +transcript, headed "Sonnet to the Republic of Benevento", in the +Harvard manuscript book.] + +Nor happiness, nor majesty, nor fame, +Nor peace, nor strength, nor skill in arms or arts, +Shepherd those herds whom tyranny makes tame; +Verse echoes not one beating of their hearts, +History is but the shadow of their shame, _5 +Art veils her glass, or from the pageant starts +As to oblivion their blind millions fleet, +Staining that Heaven with obscene imagery +Of their own likeness. What are numbers knit +By force or custom? Man who man would be, _10 +Must rule the empire of himself; in it +Must be supreme, establishing his throne +On vanquished will, quelling the anarchy +Of hopes and fears, being himself alone. + +*** + + +THE AZIOLA. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley in "The Keepsake", 1829.] + +1. +'Do you not hear the Aziola cry? +Methinks she must be nigh,' +Said Mary, as we sate +In dusk, ere stars were lit, or candles brought; +And I, who thought _5 +This Aziola was some tedious woman, +Asked, 'Who is Aziola?' How elate +I felt to know that it was nothing human, +No mockery of myself to fear or hate: +And Mary saw my soul, _10 +And laughed, and said, 'Disquiet yourself not; +'Tis nothing but a little downy owl.' + +2. +Sad Aziola! many an eventide +Thy music I had heard +By wood and stream, meadow and mountain-side, _15 +And fields and marshes wide,-- +Such as nor voice, nor lute, nor wind, nor bird, +The soul ever stirred; +Unlike and far sweeter than them all. +Sad Aziola! from that moment I _20 +Loved thee and thy sad cry. + +NOTES: +_4 ere stars]ere the stars editions 1839. +_9 or]and editions 1839. +_19 them]they editions 1839. + +*** + + +A LAMENT. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +1. +O world! O life! O time! +On whose last steps I climb, +Trembling at that where I had stood before; +When will return the glory of your prime? +No more--Oh, never more! _5 + +2. +Out of the day and night +A joy has taken flight; +Fresh spring, and summer, and winter hoar, +Move my faint heart with grief, but with delight +No more--Oh, never more! _10 + +*** + + +REMEMBRANCE. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824, where it is +entitled "A Lament". Three manuscript copies are extant: The Trelawny +manuscript ("Remembrance"), the Harvard manuscript ("Song") and the +Houghton manuscript--the last written by Shelley on a flyleaf of a copy +of "Adonais".] + +1. +Swifter far than summer's flight-- +Swifter far than youth's delight-- +Swifter far than happy night, +Art thou come and gone-- +As the earth when leaves are dead, _5 +As the night when sleep is sped, +As the heart when joy is fled, +I am left lone, alone. + +2. +The swallow summer comes again-- +The owlet night resumes her reign-- _10 +But the wild-swan youth is fain +To fly with thee, false as thou.-- +My heart each day desires the morrow; +Sleep itself is turned to sorrow; +Vainly would my winter borrow _15 +Sunny leaves from any bough. + +3. +Lilies for a bridal bed-- +Roses for a matron's head-- +Violets for a maiden dead-- +Pansies let MY flowers be: _20 +On the living grave I bear +Scatter them without a tear-- +Let no friend, however dear, +Waste one hope, one fear for me. + +NOTES: +_5-_7 So editions 1824, 1839, Trelawny manuscript, Harvard manuscript; + As the wood when leaves are shed, + As the night when sleep is fled, + As the heart when joy is dead Houghton manuscript. +_13 So editions 1824, 1839, Harvard manuscript, Houghton manuscript. + My heart to-day desires to-morrow Trelawny manuscript. +_20 So editions 1824, 1839, Harvard manuscript, Houghton manuscript. + Sadder flowers find for me Trelawny manuscript. +_24 one hope, one fear]a hope, a fear Trelawny manuscript. + +*** + + +TO EDWARD WILLIAMS. + +[Published in Ascham's edition of the "Poems", 1834. +There is a copy amongst the Trelawny manuscripts.] + +1. +The serpent is shut out from Paradise. +The wounded deer must seek the herb no more +In which its heart-cure lies: +The widowed dove must cease to haunt a bower +Like that from which its mate with feigned sighs _5 +Fled in the April hour. +I too must seldom seek again +Near happy friends a mitigated pain. + +2. +Of hatred I am proud,--with scorn content; +Indifference, that once hurt me, now is grown _10 +Itself indifferent; +But, not to speak of love, pity alone +Can break a spirit already more than bent. +The miserable one +Turns the mind's poison into food,-- _15 +Its medicine is tears,--its evil good. + +3. +Therefore, if now I see you seldomer, +Dear friends, dear FRIEND! know that I only fly +Your looks, because they stir +Griefs that should sleep, and hopes that cannot die: _20 +The very comfort that they minister +I scarce can bear, yet I, +So deeply is the arrow gone, +Should quickly perish if it were withdrawn. + +4. +When I return to my cold home, you ask _25 +Why I am not as I have ever been. +YOU spoil me for the task +Of acting a forced part in life's dull scene,-- +Of wearing on my brow the idle mask +Of author, great or mean, _30 +In the world's carnival. I sought +Peace thus, and but in you I found it not. + +5. +Full half an hour, to-day, I tried my lot +With various flowers, and every one still said, +'She loves me--loves me not.' _35 +And if this meant a vision long since fled-- +If it meant fortune, fame, or peace of thought-- +If it meant,--but I dread +To speak what you may know too well: +Still there was truth in the sad oracle. _40 + +6. +The crane o'er seas and forests seeks her home; +No bird so wild but has its quiet nest, +When it no more would roam; +The sleepless billows on the ocean's breast +Break like a bursting heart, and die in foam, _45 +And thus at length find rest: +Doubtless there is a place of peace +Where MY weak heart and all its throbs will cease. + +7. +I asked her, yesterday, if she believed +That I had resolution. One who HAD _50 +Would ne'er have thus relieved +His heart with words,--but what his judgement bade +Would do, and leave the scorner unrelieved. +These verses are too sad +To send to you, but that I know, _55 +Happy yourself, you feel another's woe. + +NOTES: +_10 Indifference, which once hurt me, is now grown Trelawny manuscript. +_18 Dear friends, dear friend Trelawny manuscript, 1839, 2nd edition; + Dear gentle friend 1834, 1839, 1st edition. +_26 ever]lately Trelawny manuscript. +_28 in Trelawny manuscript; on 1834, editions 1839, +_43 When 1839, 2nd edition; Whence 1834, 1839, 1st edition. +_48 will 1839, 2nd edition; shall 1834, 1839, 1st edition. +_53 unrelieved Trelawny manuscript, 1839, 2nd. edition; + unreprieved 1834, 1839, 1st edition. +_54 are]were Trelawny manuscript. + +*** + + +TO --. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +1. +One word is too often profaned +For me to profane it, +One feeling too falsely disdained +For thee to disdain it; +One hope is too like despair _5 +For prudence to smother, +And pity from thee more dear +Than that from another. + +2. +I can give not what men call love, +But wilt thou accept not _10 +The worship the heart lifts above +And the Heavens reject not,-- +The desire of the moth for the star, +Of the night for the morrow, +The devotion to something afar _15 +From the sphere of our sorrow? + +*** + + +TO --. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824. +There is a Boscombe manuscript.] + +1. +When passion's trance is overpast, +If tenderness and truth could last, +Or live, whilst all wild feelings keep +Some mortal slumber, dark and deep, +I should not weep, I should not weep! _5 + +2. +It were enough to feel, to see, +Thy soft eyes gazing tenderly, +And dream the rest--and burn and be +The secret food of fires unseen, +Couldst thou but be as thou hast been, _10 + +3. +After the slumber of the year +The woodland violets reappear; +All things revive in field or grove, +And sky and sea, but two, which move +And form all others, life and love. _15 + +NOTE: +_15 form Boscombe manuscript; for editions 1824, 1839. + +*** + + +A BRIDAL SONG. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +1. +The golden gates of Sleep unbar +Where Strength and Beauty, met together, +Kindle their image like a star +In a sea of glassy weather! +Night, with all thy stars look down,-- _5 +Darkness, weep thy holiest dew,-- +Never smiled the inconstant moon +On a pair so true. +Let eyes not see their own delight;-- +Haste, swift Hour, and thy flight _10 +Oft renew. + +2. +Fairies, sprites, and angels, keep her! +Holy stars, permit no wrong! +And return to wake the sleeper, +Dawn,--ere it be long! _15 +O joy! O fear! what will be done +In the absence of the sun! +Come along! + +*** + + +EPITHALAMIUM. + +ANOTHER VERSION OF THE PRECEDING. + +[Published by Medwin, "Life of Shelley", 1847.] + +Night, with all thine eyes look down! +Darkness shed its holiest dew! +When ever smiled the inconstant moon +On a pair so true? +Hence, coy hour! and quench thy light, _5 +Lest eyes see their own delight! +Hence, swift hour! and thy loved flight +Oft renew. + +BOYS: +O joy! O fear! what may be done +In the absence of the sun? _10 +Come along! +The golden gates of sleep unbar! +When strength and beauty meet together, +Kindles their image like a star +In a sea of glassy weather. _15 +Hence, coy hour! and quench thy light, +Lest eyes see their own delight! +Hence, swift hour! and thy loved flight +Oft renew. + +GIRLS: +O joy! O fear! what may be done _20 +In the absence of the sun? +Come along! +Fairies! sprites! and angels, keep her! +Holiest powers, permit no wrong! +And return, to wake the sleeper, _25 +Dawn, ere it be long. +Hence, swift hour! and quench thy light, +Lest eyes see their own delight! +Hence, coy hour! and thy loved flight +Oft renew. _30 + +BOYS AND GIRLS: +O joy! O fear! what will be done +In the absence of the sun? +Come along! + +NOTE: +_17 Lest]Let 1847. + +*** + + +ANOTHER VERSION OF THE SAME. + +[Published by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870, +from the Trelawny manuscript of Edward Williams's play, "The Promise: +or, A Year, a Month, and a Day".] + +BOYS SING: +Night! with all thine eyes look down! +Darkness! weep thy holiest dew! +Never smiled the inconstant moon +On a pair so true. +Haste, coy hour! and quench all light, _5 +Lest eyes see their own delight! +Haste, swift hour! and thy loved flight +Oft renew! + +GIRLS SING: +Fairies, sprites, and angels, keep her! +Holy stars! permit no wrong! _10 +And return, to wake the sleeper, +Dawn, ere it be long! +O joy! O fear! there is not one +Of us can guess what may be done +In the absence of the sun:-- _15 +Come along! + +BOYS: +Oh! linger long, thou envious eastern lamp +In the damp +Caves of the deep! + +GIRLS: +Nay, return, Vesper! urge thy lazy car! _20 +Swift unbar +The gates of Sleep! + +CHORUS: +The golden gate of Sleep unbar, +When Strength and Beauty, met together, +Kindle their image, like a star _25 +In a sea of glassy weather. +May the purple mist of love +Round them rise, and with them move, +Nourishing each tender gem +Which, like flowers, will burst from them. _30 +As the fruit is to the tree +May their children ever be! + +*** + + +LOVE, HOPE, DESIRE, AND FEAR. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862. 'A very free +translation of Brunetto Latini's "Tesoretto", lines 81-154.'--A.C. +Bradley.] + +... + +And many there were hurt by that strong boy, +His name, they said, was Pleasure, +And near him stood, glorious beyond measure +Four Ladies who possess all empery +In earth and air and sea, _5 +Nothing that lives from their award is free. +Their names will I declare to thee, +Love, Hope, Desire, and Fear, +And they the regents are +Of the four elements that frame the heart, _10 +And each diversely exercised her art +By force or circumstance or sleight +To prove her dreadful might +Upon that poor domain. +Desire presented her [false] glass, and then _15 +The spirit dwelling there +Was spellbound to embrace what seemed so fair +Within that magic mirror, +And dazed by that bright error, +It would have scorned the [shafts] of the avenger _20 +And death, and penitence, and danger, +Had not then silent Fear +Touched with her palsying spear, +So that as if a frozen torrent +The blood was curdled in its current; _25 +It dared not speak, even in look or motion, +But chained within itself its proud devotion. +Between Desire and Fear thou wert +A wretched thing, poor heart! +Sad was his life who bore thee in his breast, _30 +Wild bird for that weak nest. +Till Love even from fierce Desire it bought, +And from the very wound of tender thought +Drew solace, and the pity of sweet eyes +Gave strength to bear those gentle agonies, _35 +Surmount the loss, the terror, and the sorrow. +Then Hope approached, she who can borrow +For poor to-day, from rich tomorrow, +And Fear withdrew, as night when day +Descends upon the orient ray, _40 +And after long and vain endurance +The poor heart woke to her assurance. +--At one birth these four were born +With the world's forgotten morn, +And from Pleasure still they hold _45 +All it circles, as of old. +When, as summer lures the swallow, +Pleasure lures the heart to follow-- +O weak heart of little wit! +The fair hand that wounded it, _50 +Seeking, like a panting hare, +Refuge in the lynx's lair, +Love, Desire, Hope, and Fear, +Ever will be near. + +*** + + +FRAGMENTS WRITTEN FOR HELLAS. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +1. +Fairest of the Destinies, +Disarray thy dazzling eyes: +Keener far thy lightnings are +Than the winged [bolts] thou bearest, +And the smile thou wearest _5 +Wraps thee as a star +Is wrapped in light. + +2. +Could Arethuse to her forsaken urn +From Alpheus and the bitter Doris run, +Or could the morning shafts of purest light _10 +Again into the quivers of the Sun +Be gathered--could one thought from its wild flight +Return into the temple of the brain +Without a change, without a stain,-- +Could aught that is, ever again _15 +Be what it once has ceased to be, +Greece might again be free! + +3. +A star has fallen upon the earth +Mid the benighted nations, +A quenchless atom of immortal light, _20 +A living spark of Night, +A cresset shaken from the constellations. +Swifter than the thunder fell +To the heart of Earth, the well +Where its pulses flow and beat, _25 +And unextinct in that cold source +Burns, and on ... course +Guides the sphere which is its prison, +Like an angelic spirit pent +In a form of mortal birth, _30 +Till, as a spirit half-arisen +Shatters its charnel, it has rent, +In the rapture of its mirth, +The thin and painted garment of the Earth, +Ruining its chaos--a fierce breath _35 +Consuming all its forms of living death. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'I WOULD NOT BE A KING'. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition.] + +I would not be a king--enough +Of woe it is to love; +The path to power is steep and rough, +And tempests reign above. +I would not climb the imperial throne; _5 +'Tis built on ice which fortune's sun +Thaws in the height of noon. +Then farewell, king, yet were I one, +Care would not come so soon. +Would he and I were far away _10 +Keeping flocks on Himalay! + +*** + + +GINEVRA. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824, +and dated 'Pisa, 1821.'] + +Wild, pale, and wonder-stricken, even as one +Who staggers forth into the air and sun +From the dark chamber of a mortal fever, +Bewildered, and incapable, and ever +Fancying strange comments in her dizzy brain _5 +Of usual shapes, till the familiar train +Of objects and of persons passed like things +Strange as a dreamer's mad imaginings, +Ginevra from the nuptial altar went; +The vows to which her lips had sworn assent _10 +Rung in her brain still with a jarring din, +Deafening the lost intelligence within. + +And so she moved under the bridal veil, +Which made the paleness of her cheek more pale, +And deepened the faint crimson of her mouth, _15 +And darkened her dark locks, as moonlight doth,-- +And of the gold and jewels glittering there +She scarce felt conscious,--but the weary glare +Lay like a chaos of unwelcome light, +Vexing the sense with gorgeous undelight, _20 +A moonbeam in the shadow of a cloud +Was less heavenly fair--her face was bowed, +And as she passed, the diamonds in her hair +Were mirrored in the polished marble stair +Which led from the cathedral to the street; _25 +And ever as she went her light fair feet +Erased these images. + +The bride-maidens who round her thronging came, +Some with a sense of self-rebuke and shame, +Envying the unenviable; and others +Making the joy which should have been another's _30 +Their own by gentle sympathy; and some +Sighing to think of an unhappy home: +Some few admiring what can ever lure +Maidens to leave the heaven serene and pure +Of parents' smiles for life's great cheat; a thing _35 +Bitter to taste, sweet in imagining. + +But they are all dispersed--and, lo! she stands +Looking in idle grief on her white hands, +Alone within the garden now her own; _40 +And through the sunny air, with jangling tone, +The music of the merry marriage-bells, +Killing the azure silence, sinks and swells;-- +Absorbed like one within a dream who dreams +That he is dreaming, until slumber seems _45 +A mockery of itself--when suddenly +Antonio stood before her, pale as she. +With agony, with sorrow, and with pride, +He lifted his wan eyes upon the bride, +And said--'Is this thy faith?' and then as one _50 +Whose sleeping face is stricken by the sun +With light like a harsh voice, which bids him rise +And look upon his day of life with eyes +Which weep in vain that they can dream no more, +Ginevra saw her lover, and forbore _55 +To shriek or faint, and checked the stifling blood +Rushing upon her heart, and unsubdued +Said--'Friend, if earthly violence or ill, +Suspicion, doubt, or the tyrannic will +Of parents, chance or custom, time or change, _60 +Or circumstance, or terror, or revenge, +Or wildered looks, or words, or evil speech, +With all their stings and venom can impeach +Our love,--we love not:--if the grave which hides +The victim from the tyrant, and divides _65 +The cheek that whitens from the eyes that dart +Imperious inquisition to the heart +That is another's, could dissever ours, +We love not.'--'What! do not the silent hours +Beckon thee to Gherardi's bridal bed? _70 +Is not that ring'--a pledge, he would have said, +Of broken vows, but she with patient look +The golden circle from her finger took, +And said--'Accept this token of my faith, +The pledge of vows to be absolved by death; _75 +And I am dead or shall be soon--my knell +Will mix its music with that merry bell, +Does it not sound as if they sweetly said +"We toll a corpse out of the marriage-bed"? +The flowers upon my bridal chamber strewn _80 +Will serve unfaded for my bier--so soon +That even the dying violet will not die +Before Ginevra.' The strong fantasy +Had made her accents weaker and more weak, +And quenched the crimson life upon her cheek, _85 +And glazed her eyes, and spread an atmosphere +Round her, which chilled the burning noon with fear, +Making her but an image of the thought +Which, like a prophet or a shadow, brought +News of the terrors of the coming time. _90 +Like an accuser branded with the crime +He would have cast on a beloved friend, +Whose dying eyes reproach not to the end +The pale betrayer--he then with vain repentance +Would share, he cannot now avert, the sentence-- _95 +Antonio stood and would have spoken, when +The compound voice of women and of men +Was heard approaching; he retired, while she +Was led amid the admiring company +Back to the palace,--and her maidens soon _100 +Changed her attire for the afternoon, +And left her at her own request to keep +An hour of quiet rest:--like one asleep +With open eyes and folded hands she lay, +Pale in the light of the declining day. _105 + +Meanwhile the day sinks fast, the sun is set, +And in the lighted hall the guests are met; +The beautiful looked lovelier in the light +Of love, and admiration, and delight +Reflected from a thousand hearts and eyes, _110 +Kindling a momentary Paradise. +This crowd is safer than the silent wood, +Where love's own doubts disturb the solitude; +On frozen hearts the fiery rain of wine +Falls, and the dew of music more divine _115 +Tempers the deep emotions of the time +To spirits cradled in a sunny clime:-- +How many meet, who never yet have met, +To part too soon, but never to forget. +How many saw the beauty, power and wit _120 +Of looks and words which ne'er enchanted yet; +But life's familiar veil was now withdrawn, +As the world leaps before an earthquake's dawn, +And unprophetic of the coming hours, +The matin winds from the expanded flowers _125 +Scatter their hoarded incense, and awaken +The earth, until the dewy sleep is shaken +From every living heart which it possesses, +Through seas and winds, cities and wildernesses, +As if the future and the past were all _130 +Treasured i' the instant;--so Gherardi's hall +Laughed in the mirth of its lord's festival, +Till some one asked--'Where is the Bride?' And then +A bridesmaid went,--and ere she came again +A silence fell upon the guests--a pause _135 +Of expectation, as when beauty awes +All hearts with its approach, though unbeheld; +Then wonder, and then fear that wonder quelled;-- +For whispers passed from mouth to ear which drew +The colour from the hearer's cheeks, and flew _140 +Louder and swifter round the company; +And then Gherardi entered with an eye +Of ostentatious trouble, and a crowd +Surrounded him, and some were weeping loud. + +They found Ginevra dead! if it be death _145 +To lie without motion, or pulse, or breath, +With waxen cheeks, and limbs cold, stiff, and white, +And open eyes, whose fixed and glassy light +Mocked at the speculation they had owned. +If it be death, when there is felt around _150 +A smell of clay, a pale and icy glare, +And silence, and a sense that lifts the hair +From the scalp to the ankles, as it were +Corruption from the spirit passing forth, +And giving all it shrouded to the earth, _155 +And leaving as swift lightning in its flight +Ashes, and smoke, and darkness: in our night +Of thought we know thus much of death,--no more +Than the unborn dream of our life before +Their barks are wrecked on its inhospitable shore. _160 +The marriage feast and its solemnity +Was turned to funeral pomp--the company, +With heavy hearts and looks, broke up; nor they +Who loved the dead went weeping on their way +Alone, but sorrow mixed with sad surprise _165 +Loosened the springs of pity in all eyes, +On which that form, whose fate they weep in vain, +Will never, thought they, kindle smiles again. +The lamps which, half extinguished in their haste, +Gleamed few and faint o'er the abandoned feast, _170 +Showed as it were within the vaulted room +A cloud of sorrow hanging, as if gloom +Had passed out of men's minds into the air. +Some few yet stood around Gherardi there, +Friends and relations of the dead,--and he, _175 +A loveless man, accepted torpidly +The consolation that he wanted not; +Awe in the place of grief within him wrought. +Their whispers made the solemn silence seem +More still--some wept,... _180 +Some melted into tears without a sob, +And some with hearts that might be heard to throb +Leaned on the table and at intervals +Shuddered to hear through the deserted halls +And corridors the thrilling shrieks which came _185 +Upon the breeze of night, that shook the flame +Of every torch and taper as it swept +From out the chamber where the women kept;-- +Their tears fell on the dear companion cold +Of pleasures now departed; then was knolled _190 +The bell of death, and soon the priests arrived, +And finding Death their penitent had shrived, +Returned like ravens from a corpse whereon +A vulture has just feasted to the bone. +And then the mourning women came.-- _195 + +... + +THE DIRGE. + +Old winter was gone +In his weakness back to the mountains hoar, +And the spring came down +From the planet that hovers upon the shore + +Where the sea of sunlight encroaches _200 +On the limits of wintry night;-- +If the land, and the air, and the sea, +Rejoice not when spring approaches, +We did not rejoice in thee, +Ginevra! _205 + +She is still, she is cold +On the bridal couch, +One step to the white deathbed, +And one to the bier, +And one to the charnel--and one, oh where? _210 +The dark arrow fled +In the noon. + +Ere the sun through heaven once more has rolled, +The rats in her heart +Will have made their nest, _215 +And the worms be alive in her golden hair, +While the Spirit that guides the sun, +Sits throned in his flaming chair, +She shall sleep. + +NOTES: +22 Was]Were cj. Rossetti.old +26 ever 1824; even editions 1839. +_37 Bitter editions 1839; Better 1824. +_63 wanting in 1824. +_103 quiet rest cj. A.C. Bradley; quiet and rest 1824. +_129 winds]lands cj. Forman; waves, sands or strands cj. Rossetti. +_167 On]In cj. Rossetti. + +*** + + +EVENING: PONTE AL MARE, PISA + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824. +There is a draft amongst the Boscombe manuscripts.] + +1. +The sun is set; the swallows are asleep; +The bats are flitting fast in the gray air; +The slow soft toads out of damp corners creep, +And evening's breath, wandering here and there +Over the quivering surface of the stream, _5 +Wakes not one ripple from its summer dream. + +2. +There is no dew on the dry grass to-night, +Nor damp within the shadow of the trees; +The wind is intermitting, dry, and light; +And in the inconstant motion of the breeze _10 +The dust and straws are driven up and down, +And whirled about the pavement of the town. + +3. +Within the surface of the fleeting river +The wrinkled image of the city lay, +Immovably unquiet, and forever _15 +It trembles, but it never fades away; +Go to the... +You, being changed, will find it then as now. + +4. +The chasm in which the sun has sunk is shut +By darkest barriers of cinereous cloud, _20 +Like mountain over mountain huddled--but +Growing and moving upwards in a crowd, +And over it a space of watery blue, +Which the keen evening star is shining through.. + +NOTES: +_6 summer 1839, 2nd edition; silent 1824, 1839, 1st edition. +_20 cinereous Boscombe manuscript; enormous editions 1824, 1839. + +*** + + +THE BOAT ON THE SERCHIO. + +[Published in part (lines 1-61, 88-118) by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous +Poems", 1824; revised and enlarged by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical +Works of P. B. S.", 1870.] + +Our boat is asleep on Serchio's stream, +Its sails are folded like thoughts in a dream, +The helm sways idly, hither and thither; +Dominic, the boatman, has brought the mast, +And the oars, and the sails; but 'tis sleeping fast, _5 +Like a beast, unconscious of its tether. + +The stars burnt out in the pale blue air, +And the thin white moon lay withering there; +To tower, and cavern, and rift, and tree, +The owl and the bat fled drowsily. _10 +Day had kindled the dewy woods, +And the rocks above and the stream below, +And the vapours in their multitudes, +And the Apennine's shroud of summer snow, +And clothed with light of aery gold _15 +The mists in their eastern caves uprolled. + +Day had awakened all things that be, +The lark and the thrush and the swallow free, +And the milkmaid's song and the mower's scythe +And the matin-bell and the mountain bee: _20 +Fireflies were quenched on the dewy corn, +Glow-worms went out on the river's brim, +Like lamps which a student forgets to trim: +The beetle forgot to wind his horn, +The crickets were still in the meadow and hill: _25 +Like a flock of rooks at a farmer's gun +Night's dreams and terrors, every one, +Fled from the brains which are their prey +From the lamp's death to the morning ray. + +All rose to do the task He set to each, _30 +Who shaped us to His ends and not our own; +The million rose to learn, and one to teach +What none yet ever knew or can be known. +And many rose +Whose woe was such that fear became desire;-- _35 +Melchior and Lionel were not among those; +They from the throng of men had stepped aside, +And made their home under the green hill-side. +It was that hill, whose intervening brow +Screens Lucca from the Pisan's envious eye, _40 +Which the circumfluous plain waving below, +Like a wide lake of green fertility, +With streams and fields and marshes bare, +Divides from the far Apennines--which lie +Islanded in the immeasurable air. _45 + +'What think you, as she lies in her green cove, +Our little sleeping boat is dreaming of?' +'If morning dreams are true, why I should guess +That she was dreaming of our idleness, +And of the miles of watery way _50 +We should have led her by this time of day.'- + +'Never mind,' said Lionel, +'Give care to the winds, they can bear it well +About yon poplar-tops; and see +The white clouds are driving merrily, _55 +And the stars we miss this morn will light +More willingly our return to-night.-- +How it whistles, Dominic's long black hair! +List, my dear fellow; the breeze blows fair: +Hear how it sings into the air--' _60 + +--'Of us and of our lazy motions,' +Impatiently said Melchior, +'If I can guess a boat's emotions; +And how we ought, two hours before, +To have been the devil knows where.' _65 +And then, in such transalpine Tuscan +As would have killed a Della-Cruscan, + +... + +So, Lionel according to his art +Weaving his idle words, Melchior said: +'She dreams that we are not yet out of bed; _70 +We'll put a soul into her, and a heart +Which like a dove chased by a dove shall beat.' + +... + +'Ay, heave the ballast overboard, +And stow the eatables in the aft locker.' +'Would not this keg be best a little lowered?' _75 +'No, now all's right.' 'Those bottles of warm tea-- +(Give me some straw)--must be stowed tenderly; +Such as we used, in summer after six, +To cram in greatcoat pockets, and to mix +Hard eggs and radishes and rolls at Eton, _80 +And, couched on stolen hay in those green harbours +Farmers called gaps, and we schoolboys called arbours, +Would feast till eight.' + +... + +With a bottle in one hand, +As if his very soul were at a stand _85 +Lionel stood--when Melchior brought him steady:-- +'Sit at the helm--fasten this sheet--all ready!' + +The chain is loosed, the sails are spread, +The living breath is fresh behind, +As with dews and sunrise fed, _90 +Comes the laughing morning wind;-- +The sails are full, the boat makes head +Against the Serchio's torrent fierce, +Then flags with intermitting course, +And hangs upon the wave, and stems _95 +The tempest of the... +Which fervid from its mountain source +Shallow, smooth and strong doth come,-- +Swift as fire, tempestuously +It sweeps into the affrighted sea; _100 +In morning's smile its eddies coil, +Its billows sparkle, toss and boil, +Torturing all its quiet light +Into columns fierce and bright. + +The Serchio, twisting forth _105 +Between the marble barriers which it clove +At Ripafratta, leads through the dread chasm +The wave that died the death which lovers love, +Living in what it sought; as if this spasm +Had not yet passed, the toppling mountains cling, _110 +But the clear stream in full enthusiasm +Pours itself on the plain, then wandering +Down one clear path of effluence crystalline +Sends its superfluous waves, that they may fling +At Arno's feet tribute of corn and wine; +Then, through the pestilential deserts wild +Of tangled marsh and woods of stunted pine, +It rushes to the Ocean. + +NOTES: +_58-_61 List, my dear fellow, the breeze blows fair; +How it scatters Dominic's long black hair! +Singing of us, and our lazy motions, +If I can guess a boat's emotions.'--editions 1824, 1839. +_61-_67 Rossetti places these lines conjecturally between lines 51 and 52. +_61-_65 'are evidently an alternative version of 48-51' (A.C. Bradley). +_95, _96 and stems The tempest of the wanting in editions 1824, 1839. +_112 then Boscombe manuscript; until editions 1824, 1839 +_114 superfluous Boscombe manuscript; clear editions 1824, 1839. +_117 pine Boscombe manuscript; fir editions 1824, 1839. + +*** + + +MUSIC. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +1. +I pant for the music which is divine, +My heart in its thirst is a dying flower; +Pour forth the sound like enchanted wine, +Loosen the notes in a silver shower; +Like a herbless plain, for the gentle rain, _5 +I gasp, I faint, till they wake again. + +2. +Let me drink of the spirit of that sweet sound, +More, oh more,--I am thirsting yet; +It loosens the serpent which care has bound +Upon my heart to stifle it; _10 +The dissolving strain, through every vein, +Passes into my heart and brain. + +3. +As the scent of a violet withered up, +Which grew by the brink of a silver lake, +When the hot noon has drained its dewy cup, _15 +And mist there was none its thirst to slake-- +And the violet lay dead while the odour flew +On the wings of the wind o'er the waters blue-- + +4. +As one who drinks from a charmed cup +Of foaming, and sparkling, and murmuring wine, _20 +Whom, a mighty Enchantress filling up, +Invites to love with her kiss divine... + +NOTES: +_16 mist 1824; tank 1839, 2nd edition. + +*** + + +SONNET TO BYRON. + +[Published by Medwin, "The Shelley Papers", 1832 (lines 1-7), and "Life +of Shelley", 1847 (lines 1-9, 12-14). Revised and completed from the +Boscombe manuscript by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", +1870.] + +[I am afraid these verses will not please you, but] +If I esteemed you less, Envy would kill +Pleasure, and leave to Wonder and Despair +The ministration of the thoughts that fill +The mind which, like a worm whose life may share +A portion of the unapproachable, _5 +Marks your creations rise as fast and fair +As perfect worlds at the Creator's will. + +But such is my regard that nor your power +To soar above the heights where others [climb], +Nor fame, that shadow of the unborn hour _10 +Cast from the envious future on the time, +Move one regret for his unhonoured name +Who dares these words:--the worm beneath the sod +May lift itself in homage of the God. + +NOTES: +_1 you edition 1870; him 1832; thee 1847. +_4 So edition 1870; My soul which as a worm may haply share 1832; + My soul which even as a worm may share 1847. +_6 your edition 1870; his 1832; thy 1847. +_8, _9 So edition 1870 wanting 1832 - + But not the blessings of thy happier lot, + Nor thy well-won prosperity, and fame 1847. +_10, _11 So edition 1870; wanting 1832, 1847. +_12-_14 So 1847, edition 1870; wanting 1832. + + +*** + +FRAGMENT ON KEATS. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition--ED.] + +ON KEATS, WHO DESIRED THAT ON HIS TOMB SHOULD BE INSCRIBED-- + +'Here lieth One whose name was writ on water. +But, ere the breath that could erase it blew, +Death, in remorse for that fell slaughter, +Death, the immortalizing winter, flew +Athwart the stream,--and time's printless torrent grew _5 +A scroll of crystal, blazoning the name +Of Adonais! + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'METHOUGHT I WAS A BILLOW IN THE CROWD'. + +[Published by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870.] + +Methought I was a billow in the crowd +Of common men, that stream without a shore, +That ocean which at once is deaf and loud; +That I, a man, stood amid many more +By a wayside..., which the aspect bore _5 +Of some imperial metropolis, +Where mighty shapes--pyramid, dome, and tower-- +Gleamed like a pile of crags-- + +*** + + +TO-MORROW. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +Where art thou, beloved To-morrow? +When young and old, and strong and weak, +Rich and poor, through joy and sorrow, +Thy sweet smiles we ever seek,-- +In thy place--ah! well-a-day! _5 +We find the thing we fled--To-day. + +*** + + +STANZA. + +[Published by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870. +Connected by Dowden with the preceding.] + +If I walk in Autumn's even +While the dead leaves pass, +If I look on Spring's soft heaven,-- +Something is not there which was +Winter's wondrous frost and snow, _5 +Summer's clouds, where are they now? + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: A WANDERER. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.] + +He wanders, like a day-appearing dream, +Through the dim wildernesses of the mind; +Through desert woods and tracts, which seem +Like ocean, homeless, boundless, unconfined. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: LIFE ROUNDED WITH SLEEP. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition.] + +The babe is at peace within the womb; +The corpse is at rest within the tomb: +We begin in what we end. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'I FAINT, I PERISH WITH MY LOVE!'. + +[Published by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870.] + +I faint, I perish with my love! I grow +Frail as a cloud whose [splendours] pale +Under the evening's ever-changing glow: +I die like mist upon the gale, +And like a wave under the calm I fail. _5 + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: THE LADY OF THE SOUTH. + +[Published by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870.] + +Faint with love, the Lady of the South +Lay in the paradise of Lebanon +Under a heaven of cedar boughs: the drouth +Of love was on her lips; the light was gone +Out of her eyes-- _5 + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: ZEPHYRUS THE AWAKENER. + +[Published by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870.] + +Come, thou awakener of the spirit's ocean, +Zephyr, whom to thy cloud or cave +No thought can trace! speed with thy gentle motion! + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: RAIN. + +[Published by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870.] + +The gentleness of rain was in the wind. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'WHEN SOFT WINDS AND SUNNY SKIES'. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.] + +When soft winds and sunny skies +With the green earth harmonize, +And the young and dewy dawn, +Bold as an unhunted fawn, +Up the windless heaven is gone,-- _5 +Laugh--for ambushed in the day,-- +Clouds and whirlwinds watch their prey. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'AND THAT I WALK THUS PROUDLY CROWNED'. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.] + +And that I walk thus proudly crowned withal +Is that 'tis my distinction; if I fall, +I shall not weep out of the vital day, +To-morrow dust, nor wear a dull decay. + +NOTE: +_2 'Tis that is or In that is cj. A.C. Bradley. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'THE RUDE WIND IS SINGING'. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.] + +The rude wind is singing +The dirge of the music dead; +The cold worms are clinging +Where kisses were lately fed. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'GREAT SPIRIT'. + +[Published by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870.] + +Great Spirit whom the sea of boundless thought +Nurtures within its unimagined caves, +In which thou sittest sole, as in my mind, +Giving a voice to its mysterious waves-- + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'O THOU IMMORTAL DEITY'. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition.] + +O thou immortal deity +Whose throne is in the depth of human thought, +I do adjure thy power and thee +By all that man may be, by all that he is not, +By all that he has been and yet must be! _5 + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: THE FALSE LAUREL AND THE TRUE. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.] + +'What art thou, Presumptuous, who profanest +The wreath to mighty poets only due, +Even whilst like a forgotten moon thou wanest? +Touch not those leaves which for the eternal few +Who wander o'er the Paradise of fame, _5 +In sacred dedication ever grew: +One of the crowd thou art without a name.' +'Ah, friend, 'tis the false laurel that I wear; +Bright though it seem, it is not the same +As that which bound Milton's immortal hair; _10 +Its dew is poison; and the hopes that quicken +Under its chilling shade, though seeming fair, +Are flowers which die almost before they sicken.' + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: MAY THE LIMNER. + +[This and the three following Fragments were edited from manuscript +Shelley D1 at the Bodleian Library and published by Mr. C.D. Locock, +"Examination", etc., Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1903. They are printed +here as belonging probably to the year 1821.] + +When May is painting with her colours gay +The landscape sketched by April her sweet twin... + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: BEAUTY'S HALO. + +[Published by Mr. C.D. Locock, "Examination", etc, 1903.] + +Thy beauty hangs around thee like +Splendour around the moon-- +Thy voice, as silver bells that strike +Upon + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'THE DEATH KNELL IS RINGING'. + +('This reads like a study for "Autumn, A Dirge"' (Locock). Might it not +be part of a projected Fit v. of "The Fugitives"?--ED.) + +[Published by Mr. C.D. Locock, "Examination", etc., 1903.] + +The death knell is ringing +The raven is singing +The earth worm is creeping +The mourners are weeping +Ding dong, bell-- _5 + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: 'I STOOD UPON A HEAVEN-CLEAVING TURRET'. + +I stood upon a heaven-cleaving turret +Which overlooked a wide Metropolis-- +And in the temple of my heart my Spirit +Lay prostrate, and with parted lips did kiss +The dust of Desolations [altar] hearth-- _5 +And with a voice too faint to falter +It shook that trembling fane with its weak prayer +'Twas noon,--the sleeping skies were blue +The city + +*** + + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1821, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + +My task becomes inexpressibly painful as the year draws near that which +sealed our earthly fate, and each poem, and each event it records, has +a real or mysterious connection with the fatal catastrophe. I feel that +I am incapable of putting on paper the history of those times. The +heart of the man, abhorred of the poet, who could + + 'peep and botanize + Upon his mother's grave,' + +does not appear to me more inexplicably framed than that of one who can +dissect and probe past woes, and repeat to the public ear the groans +drawn from them in the throes of their agony. + +The year 1821 was spent in Pisa, or at the Baths of San Giuliano. We +were not, as our wont had been, alone; friends had gathered round us. +Nearly all are dead, and, when Memory recurs to the past, she wanders +among tombs. The genius, with all his blighting errors and mighty +powers; the companion of Shelley's ocean-wanderings, and the sharer of +his fate, than whom no man ever existed more gentle, generous, and +fearless; and others, who found in Shelley's society, and in his great +knowledge and warm sympathy, delight, instruction, and solace; have +joined him beyond the grave. A few survive who have felt life a desert +since he left it. What misfortune can equal death? Change can convert +every other into a blessing, or heal its sting--death alone has no +cure. It shakes the foundations of the earth on which we tread; it +destroys its beauty; it casts down our shelter; it exposes us bare to +desolation. When those we love have passed into eternity, 'life is the +desert and the solitude' in which we are forced to linger--but never +find comfort more. + +There is much in the "Adonais" which seems now more applicable to +Shelley himself than to the young and gifted poet whom he mourned. The +poetic view he takes of death, and the lofty scorn he displays towards +his calumniators, are as a prophecy on his own destiny when received +among immortal names, and the poisonous breath of critics has vanished +into emptiness before the fame he inherits. + +Shelley's favourite taste was boating; when living near the Thames or +by the Lake of Geneva, much of his life was spent on the water. On the +shore of every lake or stream or sea near which he dwelt, he had a boat +moored. He had latterly enjoyed this pleasure again. There are no +pleasure-boats on the Arno; and the shallowness of its waters (except +in winter-time, when the stream is too turbid and impetuous for +boating) rendered it difficult to get any skiff light enough to float. +Shelley, however, overcame the difficulty; he, together with a friend, +contrived a boat such as the huntsmen carry about with them in the +Maremma, to cross the sluggish but deep streams that intersect the +forests,--a boat of laths and pitched canvas. It held three persons; +and he was often seen on the Arno in it, to the horror of the Italians, +who remonstrated on the danger, and could not understand how anyone +could take pleasure in an exercise that risked life. 'Ma va per la +vita!' they exclaimed. I little thought how true their words would +prove. He once ventured, with a friend, on the glassy sea of a calm +day, down the Arno and round the coast to Leghorn, which, by keeping +close in shore, was very practicable. They returned to Pisa by the +canal, when, missing the direct cut, they got entangled among weeds, +and the boat upset; a wetting was all the harm done, except that the +intense cold of his drenched clothes made Shelley faint. Once I went +down with him to the mouth of the Arno, where the stream, then high and +swift, met the tideless sea, and disturbed its sluggish waters. It was +a waste and dreary scene; the desert sand stretched into a point +surrounded by waves that broke idly though perpetually around; it was a +scene very similar to Lido, of which he had said-- + + 'I love all waste + And solitary places; where we taste + The pleasure of believing what we see + Is boundless, as we wish our souls to be: + And such was this wide ocean, and this shore + More barren than its billows.' + +Our little boat was of greater use, unaccompanied by any danger, when +we removed to the Baths. Some friends lived at the village of Pugnano, +four miles off, and we went to and fro to see them, in our boat, by the +canal; which, fed by the Serchio, was, though an artificial, a full and +picturesque stream, making its way under verdant banks, sheltered by +trees that dipped their boughs into the murmuring waters. By day, +multitudes of Ephemera darted to and fro on the surface; at night, the +fireflies came out among the shrubs on the banks; the cicale at +noon-day kept up their hum; the aziola cooed in the quiet evening. It +was a pleasant summer, bright in all but Shelley's health and +inconstant spirits; yet he enjoyed himself greatly, and became more and +more attached to the part of the country were chance appeared to cast +us. Sometimes he projected taking a farm situated on the height of one +of the near hills, surrounded by chestnut and pine woods, and +overlooking a wide extent of country: or settling still farther in the +maritime Apennines, at Massa. Several of his slighter and unfinished +poems were inspired by these scenes, and by the companions around us. +It is the nature of that poetry, however, which overflows from the soul +oftener to express sorrow and regret than joy; for it is when oppressed +by the weight of life, and away from those he loves, that the poet has +recourse to the solace of expression in verse. + +Still, Shelley's passion was the ocean; and he wished that our summers, +instead of being passed among the hills near Pisa, should be spent on +the shores of the sea. It was very difficult to find a spot. We shrank +from Naples from a fear that the heats would disagree with Percy: +Leghorn had lost its only attraction, since our friends who had resided +there were returned to England; and, Monte Nero being the resort of +many English, we did not wish to find ourselves in the midst of a +colony of chance travellers. No one then thought it possible to reside +at Via Reggio, which latterly has become a summer resort. The low lands +and bad air of Maremma stretch the whole length of the western shores +of the Mediterranean, till broken by the rocks and hills of Spezia. It +was a vague idea, but Shelley suggested an excursion to Spezia, to see +whether it would be feasible to spend a summer there. The beauty of the +bay enchanted him. We saw no house to suit us; but the notion took +root, and many circumstances, enchained as by fatality, occurred to +urge him to execute it. + +He looked forward this autumn with great pleasure to the prospect of a +visit from Leigh Hunt. When Shelley visited Lord Byron at Ravenna, the +latter had suggested his coming out, together with the plan of a +periodical work in which they should all join. Shelley saw a prospect +of good for the fortunes of his friend, and pleasure in his society; +and instantly exerted himself to have the plan executed. He did not +intend himself joining in the work: partly from pride, not wishing to +have the air of acquiring readers for his poetry by associating it with +the compositions of more popular writers; and also because he might +feel shackled in the free expression of his opinions, if any friends +were to be compromised. By those opinions, carried even to their +outermost extent, he wished to live and die, as being in his conviction +not only true, but such as alone would conduce to the moral improvement +and happiness of mankind. The sale of the work might meanwhile, either +really or supposedly, be injured by the free expression of his +thoughts; and this evil he resolved to avoid. + +*** + + +POEMS WRITTEN IN 1822. + + +THE ZUCCA. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824, and dated +'January, 1822.' There is a copy amongst the Boscombe manuscripts.] + +1. +Summer was dead and Autumn was expiring, +And infant Winter laughed upon the land +All cloudlessly and cold;--when I, desiring +More in this world than any understand, +Wept o'er the beauty, which, like sea retiring, _5 +Had left the earth bare as the wave-worn sand +Of my lorn heart, and o'er the grass and flowers +Pale for the falsehood of the flattering Hours. + +2. +Summer was dead, but I yet lived to weep +The instability of all but weeping; _10 +And on the Earth lulled in her winter sleep +I woke, and envied her as she was sleeping. +Too happy Earth! over thy face shall creep +The wakening vernal airs, until thou, leaping +From unremembered dreams, shalt ... see _15 +No death divide thy immortality. + +3. +I loved--oh, no, I mean not one of ye, +Or any earthly one, though ye are dear +As human heart to human heart may be;-- +I loved, I know not what--but this low sphere _20 +And all that it contains, contains not thee, +Thou, whom, seen nowhere, I feel everywhere. +From Heaven and Earth, and all that in them are, +Veiled art thou, like a ... star. + +4. +By Heaven and Earth, from all whose shapes thou flowest, _25 +Neither to be contained, delayed, nor hidden; +Making divine the loftiest and the lowest, +When for a moment thou art not forbidden +To live within the life which thou bestowest; +And leaving noblest things vacant and chidden, _30 +Cold as a corpse after the spirit's flight +Blank as the sun after the birth of night. + +5. +In winds, and trees, and streams, and all things common, +In music and the sweet unconscious tone +Of animals, and voices which are human, _35 +Meant to express some feelings of their own; +In the soft motions and rare smile of woman, +In flowers and leaves, and in the grass fresh-shown, +Or dying in the autumn, I the most +Adore thee present or lament thee lost. _40 + +6. +And thus I went lamenting, when I saw +A plant upon the river's margin lie +Like one who loved beyond his nature's law, +And in despair had cast him down to die; +Its leaves, which had outlived the frost, the thaw _45 +Had blighted; like a heart which hatred's eye +Can blast not, but which pity kills; the dew +Lay on its spotted leaves like tears too true. + +7. +The Heavens had wept upon it, but the Earth +Had crushed it on her maternal breast _50 + +... + +8. +I bore it to my chamber, and I planted +It in a vase full of the lightest mould; +The winter beams which out of Heaven slanted +Fell through the window-panes, disrobed of cold, +Upon its leaves and flowers; the stars which panted _55 +In evening for the Day, whose car has rolled +Over the horizon's wave, with looks of light +Smiled on it from the threshold of the night. + +9. +The mitigated influences of air +And light revived the plant, and from it grew _60 +Strong leaves and tendrils, and its flowers fair, +Full as a cup with the vine's burning dew, +O'erflowed with golden colours; an atmosphere +Of vital warmth enfolded it anew, +And every impulse sent to every part +The unbeheld pulsations of its heart. _65 + +10. +Well might the plant grow beautiful and strong, +Even if the air and sun had smiled not on it; +For one wept o'er it all the winter long +Tears pure as Heaven's rain, which fell upon it _70 +Hour after hour; for sounds of softest song +Mixed with the stringed melodies that won it +To leave the gentle lips on which it slept, +Had loosed the heart of him who sat and wept. + +11. +Had loosed his heart, and shook the leaves and flowers _75 +On which he wept, the while the savage storm +Waked by the darkest of December's hours +Was raving round the chamber hushed and warm; +The birds were shivering in their leafless bowers, +The fish were frozen in the pools, the form _80 +Of every summer plant was dead +Whilst this.... + +... + +NOTES: +_7 lorn Boscombe manuscript; poor edition 1824. +_23 So Boscombe manuscript; Dim object of soul's idolatry edition 1824. +_24 star Boscombe manuscript; wanting edition 1824. +_38 grass fresh Boscombe manuscript; fresh grass edition 1824. +_46 like Boscombe manuscript; as edition 1824. +_68 air and sun Boscombe manuscript; sun and air edition 1824. + +*** + + +THE MAGNETIC LADY TO HER PATIENT. + +[Published by Medwin, "The Athenaeum", August 11, 1832. +There is a copy amongst the Trelawny manuscripts.] + +1. +'Sleep, sleep on! forget thy pain; +My hand is on thy brow, +My spirit on thy brain; +My pity on thy heart, poor friend; +And from my fingers flow _5 +The powers of life, and like a sign, +Seal thee from thine hour of woe; +And brood on thee, but may not blend +With thine. + +2. +'Sleep, sleep on! I love thee not; _10 +But when I think that he +Who made and makes my lot +As full of flowers as thine of weeds, +Might have been lost like thee; +And that a hand which was not mine _15 +Might then have charmed his agony +As I another's--my heart bleeds +For thine. + +3. +'Sleep, sleep, and with the slumber of +The dead and the unborn _20 +Forget thy life and love; +Forget that thou must wake forever; +Forget the world's dull scorn; +Forget lost health, and the divine +Feelings which died in youth's brief morn; _25 +And forget me, for I can never +Be thine. + +4. +'Like a cloud big with a May shower, +My soul weeps healing rain +On thee, thou withered flower! _30 +It breathes mute music on thy sleep +Its odour calms thy brain! +Its light within thy gloomy breast +Spreads like a second youth again. +By mine thy being is to its deep _35 +Possessed. + +5. +'The spell is done. How feel you now?' +'Better--Quite well,' replied +The sleeper.--'What would do _39 +You good when suffering and awake? +What cure your head and side?--' +'What would cure, that would kill me, Jane: +And as I must on earth abide +Awhile, yet tempt me not to break +My chain.' _45 + +NOTES; +_1, _10 Sleep Trelawny manuscript, 1839, 2nd edition; + Sleep on 1832, 1839, 1st edition. +_16 charmed Trelawny manuscript; + chased 1832, editions 1839. +_21 love]woe 1832. +_42 so Trelawny manuscript + 'Twould kill me what would cure my pain 1832, editions 1839. +_44 Awhile yet, cj. A.C. Bradley. + +*** + + +LINES: 'WHEN THE LAMP IS SHATTERED'. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824. +There is a copy amongst the Trelawny manuscripts.] + +1. +When the lamp is shattered +The light in the dust lies dead-- +When the cloud is scattered +The rainbow's glory is shed. +When the lute is broken, _5 +Sweet tones are remembered not; +When the lips have spoken, +Loved accents are soon forgot. + +2. +As music and splendour +Survive not the lamp and the lute, _10 +The heart's echoes render +No song when the spirit is mute:-- +No song but sad dirges, +Like the wind through a ruined cell, +Or the mournful surges _15 +That ring the dead seaman's knell. + +3. +When hearts have once mingled +Love first leaves the well-built nest; +The weak one is singled +To endure what it once possessed. _20 +O Love! who bewailest +The frailty of all things here, +Why choose you the frailest +For your cradle, your home, and your bier? + +4. +Its passions will rock thee _25 +As the storms rock the ravens on high; +Bright reason will mock thee, +Like the sun from a wintry sky. +From thy nest every rafter +Will rot, and thine eagle home _30 +Leave thee naked to laughter, +When leaves fall and cold winds come. + +NOTES: +_6 tones edition 1824; notes Trelawny manuscript. +_14 through edition 1824; in Trelawny manuscript. +_16 dead edition 1824; lost Trelawny manuscript. +_23 choose edition 1824; chose Trelawny manuscript. +_25-_32 wanting Trelawny manuscript. + +*** + + +TO JANE: THE INVITATION. + +[This and the following poem were published together in their original +form as one piece under the title, "The Pine Forest of the Cascine near +Pisa", by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824; reprinted in the same +shape, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition; republished separately in +their present form, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition. There is a +copy amongst the Trelawny manuscripts.] + +Best and brightest, come away! +Fairer far than this fair Day, +Which, like thee to those in sorrow, +Comes to bid a sweet good-morrow +To the rough Year just awake _5 +In its cradle on the brake. +The brightest hour of unborn Spring, +Through the winter wandering, +Found, it seems, the halcyon Morn +To hoar February born, _10 +Bending from Heaven, in azure mirth, +It kissed the forehead of the Earth, +And smiled upon the silent sea, +And bade the frozen streams be free, +And waked to music all their fountains, _15 +And breathed upon the frozen mountains, +And like a prophetess of May +Strewed flowers upon the barren way, +Making the wintry world appear +Like one on whom thou smilest, dear. _20 + +Away, away, from men and towns, +To the wild wood and the downs-- +To the silent wilderness +Where the soul need not repress +Its music lest it should not find _25 +An echo in another's mind, +While the touch of Nature's art +Harmonizes heart to heart. +I leave this notice on my door +For each accustomed visitor:-- _30 +'I am gone into the fields +To take what this sweet hour yields;-- +Reflection, you may come to-morrow, +Sit by the fireside with Sorrow.-- +You with the unpaid bill, Despair,-- +You, tiresome verse-reciter, Care,-- _35 +I will pay you in the grave,-- +Death will listen to your stave. +Expectation too, be off! +To-day is for itself enough; _40 +Hope, in pity mock not Woe +With smiles, nor follow where I go; +Long having lived on thy sweet food, +At length I find one moment's good +After long pain--with all your love, _45 +This you never told me of.' + +Radiant Sister of the Day, +Awake! arise! and come away! +To the wild woods and the plains, +And the pools where winter rains _50. +Image all their roof of leaves, +Where the pine its garland weaves +Of sapless green and ivy dun +Round stems that never kiss the sun; +Where the lawns and pastures be, _55 +And the sandhills of the sea;-- +Where the melting hoar-frost wets +The daisy-star that never sets, +And wind-flowers, and violets, +Which yet join not scent to hue, _60 +Crown the pale year weak and new; +When the night is left behind +In the deep east, dun and blind, +And the blue noon is over us, +And the multitudinous _65 +Billows murmur at our feet, +Where the earth and ocean meet, +And all things seem only one +In the universal sun. + +NOTES: +_34 with Trelawny manuscript; of 1839, 2nd edition. +_44 moment's Trelawny manuscript; moment 1839, 2nd edition. +_50 And Trelawny manuscript; To 1839, 2nd edition. +_53 dun Trelawny manuscript; dim 1839, 2nd edition. + +*** + + +TO JANE: THE RECOLLECTION. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition. +See the Editor's prefatory note to the preceding.] + +1. +Now the last day of many days, +All beautiful and bright as thou, +The loveliest and the last, is dead, +Rise, Memory, and write its praise! +Up,--to thy wonted work! come, trace _5 +The epitaph of glory fled,-- +For now the Earth has changed its face, +A frown is on the Heaven's brow. + +2. +We wandered to the Pine Forest +That skirts the Ocean's foam, _10 +The lightest wind was in its nest, +The tempest in its home. +The whispering waves were half asleep, +The clouds were gone to play, +And on the bosom of the deep _15 +The smile of Heaven lay; +It seemed as if the hour were one +Sent from beyond the skies, +Which scattered from above the sun +A light of Paradise. _20 + +3. +We paused amid the pines that stood +The giants of the waste, +Tortured by storms to shapes as rude +As serpents interlaced; +And, soothed by every azure breath, _25 +That under Heaven is blown, +To harmonies and hues beneath, +As tender as its own, +Now all the tree-tops lay asleep, +Like green waves on the sea, _30 +As still as in the silent deep +The ocean woods may be. + +4. +How calm it was!--the silence there +By such a chain was bound +That even the busy woodpecker _35 +Made stiller by her sound +The inviolable quietness; +The breath of peace we drew +With its soft motion made not less +The calm that round us grew. _40 +There seemed from the remotest seat +Of the white mountain waste, +To the soft flower beneath our feet, +A magic circle traced,-- +A spirit interfused around _45 +A thrilling, silent life,-- +To momentary peace it bound +Our mortal nature's strife; +And still I felt the centre of +The magic circle there _50 +Was one fair form that filled with love +The lifeless atmosphere. + +5. +We paused beside the pools that lie +Under the forest bough,-- +Each seemed as 'twere a little sky _55 +Gulfed in a world below; +A firmament of purple light +Which in the dark earth lay, +More boundless than the depth of night, +And purer than the day-- _60 +In which the lovely forests grew, +As in the upper air, +More perfect both in shape and hue +Than any spreading there. +There lay the glade and neighbouring lawn, _65 +And through the dark green wood +The white sun twinkling like the dawn +Out of a speckled cloud. +Sweet views which in our world above +Can never well be seen, _70 +Were imaged by the water's love +Of that fair forest green. +And all was interfused beneath +With an Elysian glow, +An atmosphere without a breath, _75 +A softer day below. +Like one beloved the scene had lent +To the dark water's breast, +Its every leaf and lineament +With more than truth expressed; _80 +Until an envious wind crept by, +Like an unwelcome thought, +Which from the mind's too faithful eye +Blots one dear image out. +Though thou art ever fair and kind, _85 +The forests ever green, +Less oft is peace in Shelley's mind, +Than calm in waters, seen. + +NOTES: +_6 fled edition. 1824; dead Trelawny manuscript, 1839, 2nd edition. +_10 Ocean's]Ocean 1839, 2nd edition. +_24 Interlaced, 1839; interlaced; cj. A.C. Bradley. +_28 own; 1839 own, cj. A.C. Bradley. +_42 white Trelawny manuscript; wide 1839, 2nd edition +_87 Shelley's Trelawny manuscript; S--'s 1839, 2nd edition.] + +*** + + +THE PINE FOREST OF THE CASCINE NEAR PISA. + +[This, the first draft of "To Jane: The Invitation, The Recollection", +was published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824, and reprinted, +"Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition. See Editor's Prefatory Note to +"The Invitation", above.] + +Dearest, best and brightest, +Come away, +To the woods and to the fields! +Dearer than this fairest day +Which, like thee to those in sorrow, _5 +Comes to bid a sweet good-morrow +To the rough Year just awake +In its cradle in the brake. +The eldest of the Hours of Spring, +Into the Winter wandering, _10 +Looks upon the leafless wood, +And the banks all bare and rude; +Found, it seems, this halcyon Morn +In February's bosom born, +Bending from Heaven, in azure mirth, _15 +Kissed the cold forehead of the Earth, +And smiled upon the silent sea, +And bade the frozen streams be free; +And waked to music all the fountains, +And breathed upon the rigid mountains, _20 +And made the wintry world appear +Like one on whom thou smilest, Dear. + +Radiant Sister of the Day, +Awake! arise! and come away! +To the wild woods and the plains, _25 +To the pools where winter rains +Image all the roof of leaves, +Where the pine its garland weaves +Sapless, gray, and ivy dun +Round stems that never kiss the sun-- _30 +To the sandhills of the sea, +Where the earliest violets be. + +Now the last day of many days, +All beautiful and bright as thou, +The loveliest and the last, is dead, _35 +Rise, Memory, and write its praise! +And do thy wonted work and trace +The epitaph of glory fled; +For now the Earth has changed its face, +A frown is on the Heaven's brow. _40 + +We wandered to the Pine Forest +That skirts the Ocean's foam, +The lightest wind was in its nest, +The tempest in its home. + +The whispering waves were half asleep, _45 +The clouds were gone to play, +And on the woods, and on the deep +The smile of Heaven lay. + +It seemed as if the day were one +Sent from beyond the skies, _50 +Which shed to earth above the sun +A light of Paradise. + +We paused amid the pines that stood, +The giants of the waste, +Tortured by storms to shapes as rude _55 +With stems like serpents interlaced. + +How calm it was--the silence there +By such a chain was bound, +That even the busy woodpecker +Made stiller by her sound _60 + +The inviolable quietness; +The breath of peace we drew +With its soft motion made not less +The calm that round us grew. + +It seemed that from the remotest seat _65 +Of the white mountain's waste +To the bright flower beneath our feet, +A magic circle traced;-- + +A spirit interfused around, +A thinking, silent life; _70 +To momentary peace it bound +Our mortal nature's strife;-- + +And still, it seemed, the centre of +The magic circle there, +Was one whose being filled with love _75 +The breathless atmosphere. + +Were not the crocuses that grew +Under that ilex-tree +As beautiful in scent and hue +As ever fed the bee? _80 + +We stood beneath the pools that lie +Under the forest bough, +And each seemed like a sky +Gulfed in a world below; + +A purple firmament of light _85 +Which in the dark earth lay, +More boundless than the depth of night, +And clearer than the day-- + +In which the massy forests grew +As in the upper air, _90 +More perfect both in shape and hue +Than any waving there. + +Like one beloved the scene had lent +To the dark water's breast +Its every leaf and lineament _95 +With that clear truth expressed; + +There lay far glades and neighbouring lawn, +And through the dark green crowd +The white sun twinkling like the dawn +Under a speckled cloud. _100 + +Sweet views, which in our world above +Can never well be seen, +Were imaged by the water's love +Of that fair forest green. + +And all was interfused beneath _105 +With an Elysian air, +An atmosphere without a breath, +A silence sleeping there. + +Until a wandering wind crept by, +Like an unwelcome thought, _110 +Which from my mind's too faithful eye +Blots thy bright image out. + +For thou art good and dear and kind, +The forest ever green, +But less of peace in S--'s mind, +Than calm in waters, seen. _116. + +*** + + +WITH A GUITAR, TO JANE. + +[Published by Medwin, "The Athenaeum", October 20, 1832; "Frazer's +Magazine", January 1833. There is a copy amongst the Trelawny +manuscripts.] + +Ariel to Miranda:--Take +This slave of Music, for the sake +Of him who is the slave of thee, +And teach it all the harmony +In which thou canst, and only thou, _5 +Make the delighted spirit glow, +Till joy denies itself again, +And, too intense, is turned to pain; +For by permission and command +Of thine own Prince Ferdinand, _10 +Poor Ariel sends this silent token +Of more than ever can be spoken; +Your guardian spirit, Ariel, who, +From life to life, must still pursue +Your happiness;--for thus alone _15 +Can Ariel ever find his own. +From Prospero's enchanted cell, +As the mighty verses tell, +To the throne of Naples, he +Lit you o'er the trackless sea, _20 +Flitting on, your prow before, +Like a living meteor. +When you die, the silent Moon, +In her interlunar swoon, +Is not sadder in her cell +Than deserted Ariel. +When you live again on earth, +Like an unseen star of birth, +Ariel guides you o'er the sea +Of life from your nativity. _30 +Many changes have been run +Since Ferdinand and you begun +Your course of love, and Ariel still +Has tracked your steps, and served your will; +Now, in humbler, happier lot, _35 +This is all remembered not; +And now, alas! the poor sprite is +Imprisoned, for some fault of his, +In a body like a grave;-- +From you he only dares to crave, _40 +For his service and his sorrow, +A smile today, a song tomorrow. + +The artist who this idol wrought, +To echo all harmonious thought, +Felled a tree, while on the steep _45 +The woods were in their winter sleep, +Rocked in that repose divine +On the wind-swept Apennine; +And dreaming, some of Autumn past, +And some of Spring approaching fast, _50 +And some of April buds and showers, +And some of songs in July bowers, +And all of love; and so this tree,-- +O that such our death may be!-- +Died in sleep, and felt no pain, _55 +To live in happier form again: +From which, beneath Heaven's fairest star, +The artist wrought this loved Guitar, +And taught it justly to reply, +To all who question skilfully, _60 +In language gentle as thine own; +Whispering in enamoured tone +Sweet oracles of woods and dells, +And summer winds in sylvan cells; +For it had learned all harmonies _65 +Of the plains and of the skies, +Of the forests and the mountains, +And the many-voiced fountains; +The clearest echoes of the hills, +The softest notes of falling rills, _70 +The melodies of birds and bees, +The murmuring of summer seas, +And pattering rain, and breathing dew, +And airs of evening; and it knew +That seldom-heard mysterious sound, _75 +Which, driven on its diurnal round, +As it floats through boundless day, +Our world enkindles on its way.-- +All this it knows, but will not tell +To those who cannot question well _80 +The Spirit that inhabits it; +It talks according to the wit +Of its companions; and no more +Is heard than has been felt before, +By those who tempt it to betray _85 +These secrets of an elder day: +But, sweetly as its answers will +Flatter hands of perfect skill, +It keeps its highest, holiest tone +For our beloved Jane alone. _90 + +NOTES: +_12 Of more than ever]Of love that never 1833. +_46 woods Trelawny manuscript, 1839, 2nd edition; + winds 1832, 1833, 1839, 1st edition. +_58 this Trelawny manuscript, 1839, 2nd edition; + that 1832, 1833, 1839, 1st edition. +_61 thine own Trelawny manuscript, 1839, 2nd edition; + its own 1832, 1833, 1839, 1st edition. +_76 on Trelawny manuscript, 1839, 2nd edition; + in 1832, 1833, 1839, 1st edition. +_90 Jane Trelawny manuscript; friend 1832, 1833, editions 1839. + +*** + + +TO JANE: 'THE KEEN STARS WERE TWINKLING'. + +[Published in part (lines 7-24) by Medwin (under the title, "An Ariette +for Music. To a Lady singing to her Accompaniment on the Guitar"), "The +Athenaeum", November 17, 1832; reprinted by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical +Works", 1839, 1st edition. Republished in full (under the title, To +--.), "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition. The Trelawny manuscript is +headed "To Jane". Mr. C.W. Frederickson of Brooklyn possesses a +transcript in an unknown hand.] + +1. +The keen stars were twinkling, +And the fair moon was rising among them, +Dear Jane! +The guitar was tinkling, +But the notes were not sweet till you sung them _5 +Again. + +2. +As the moon's soft splendour +O'er the faint cold starlight of Heaven +Is thrown, +So your voice most tender _10 +To the strings without soul had then given +Its own. + +3. +The stars will awaken, +Though the moon sleep a full hour later, +To-night; _15 +No leaf will be shaken +Whilst the dews of your melody scatter +Delight. + +4. +Though the sound overpowers, +Sing again, with your dear voice revealing _20 +A tone +Of some world far from ours, +Where music and moonlight and feeling +Are one. + +NOTES: +_3 Dear *** 1839, 2nd edition. +_7 soft]pale Fred. manuscript. +_10 your 1839, 2nd edition.; + thy 1832, 1839, 1st edition, Fred. manuscript. +_11 had then 1839, 2nd edition; has 1832, 1839, 1st edition; + hath Fred. manuscript. +_12 Its]Thine Fred. manuscript. +_17 your 1839, 2nd edition; + thy 1832, 1839, 1st edition, Fred. manuscript. +_19 sound]song Fred. manuscript. +_20 your dear 1839, 2nd edition; thy sweet 1832, 1839, 1st edition; + thy soft Fred. manuscript. + +*** + + +A DIRGE. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +Rough wind, that moanest loud +Grief too sad for song; +Wild wind, when sullen cloud +Knells all the night long; +Sad storm whose tears are vain, _5 +Bare woods, whose branches strain, +Deep caves and dreary main,-- +Wail, for the world's wrong! + +NOTE: +_6 strain cj. Rossetti; stain edition 1824. + +*** + + +LINES WRITTEN IN THE BAY OF LERICI. + +[Published from the Boscombe manuscripts by Dr. Garnett, "Macmillan's +Magazine", June, 1862; reprinted, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +She left me at the silent time +When the moon had ceased to climb +The azure path of Heaven's steep, +And like an albatross asleep, +Balanced on her wings of light, _5 +Hovered in the purple night, +Ere she sought her ocean nest +In the chambers of the West. +She left me, and I stayed alone +Thinking over every tone _10 +Which, though silent to the ear, +The enchanted heart could hear, +Like notes which die when born, but still +Haunt the echoes of the hill; +And feeling ever--oh, too much!-- _15 +The soft vibration of her touch, +As if her gentle hand, even now, +Lightly trembled on my brow; +And thus, although she absent were, +Memory gave me all of her _20 +That even Fancy dares to claim:-- +Her presence had made weak and tame +All passions, and I lived alone +In the time which is our own; +The past and future were forgot, _25 +As they had been, and would be, not. +But soon, the guardian angel gone, +The daemon reassumed his throne +In my faint heart. I dare not speak +My thoughts, but thus disturbed and weak _30 +I sat and saw the vessels glide +Over the ocean bright and wide, +Like spirit-winged chariots sent +O'er some serenest element +For ministrations strange and far; _35 +As if to some Elysian star +Sailed for drink to medicine +Such sweet and bitter pain as mine. +And the wind that winged their flight +From the land came fresh and light, _40 +And the scent of winged flowers, +And the coolness of the hours +Of dew, and sweet warmth left by day, +Were scattered o'er the twinkling bay. +And the fisher with his lamp _45 +And spear about the low rocks damp +Crept, and struck the fish which came +To worship the delusive flame. +Too happy they, whose pleasure sought +Extinguishes all sense and thought _50 +Of the regret that pleasure leaves, +Destroying life alone, not peace! + +NOTES: +_11 though silent Relics 1862; though now silent Mac. Mag. 1862. +_31 saw Relics 1862; watched Mac. Mag. 1862. + +*** + + +LINES: 'WE MEET NOT AS WE PARTED'. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +1. +We meet not as we parted, +We feel more than all may see; +My bosom is heavy-hearted, +And thine full of doubt for me:-- +One moment has bound the free. _5 + +2. +That moment is gone for ever, +Like lightning that flashed and died-- +Like a snowflake upon the river-- +Like a sunbeam upon the tide, +Which the dark shadows hide. _10 + +3. +That moment from time was singled +As the first of a life of pain; +The cup of its joy was mingled +--Delusion too sweet though vain! +Too sweet to be mine again. _15 + +4. +Sweet lips, could my heart have hidden +That its life was crushed by you, +Ye would not have then forbidden +The death which a heart so true +Sought in your briny dew. _20 + +5. +... +... +... +Methinks too little cost +For a moment so found, so lost! _25 + +*** + + +THE ISLE. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +There was a little lawny islet +By anemone and violet, +Like mosaic, paven: +And its roof was flowers and leaves +Which the summer's breath enweaves, _5 +Where nor sun nor showers nor breeze +Pierce the pines and tallest trees, +Each a gem engraven;-- +Girt by many an azure wave +With which the clouds and mountains pave _10 +A lake's blue chasm. + +*** + + +FRAGMENT: TO THE MOON. + +[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.] + +Bright wanderer, fair coquette of Heaven, +To whom alone it has been given +To change and be adored for ever, +Envy not this dim world, for never +But once within its shadow grew _5 +One fair as-- + +*** + + +EPITAPH. + +[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.] + +These are two friends whose lives were undivided; +So let their memory be, now they have glided +Under the grave; let not their bones be parted, +For their two hearts in life were single-hearted. + +*** + + +NOTE ON POEMS OF 1822, BY MRS. SHELLEY. + + This morn thy gallant bark + Sailed on a sunny sea: + 'Tis noon, and tempests dark + Have wrecked it on the lee. + Ah woe! ah woe! + By Spirits of the deep + Thou'rt cradled on the billow + To thy eternal sleep. + + Thou sleep'st upon the shore + Beside the knelling surge, + And Sea-nymphs evermore + Shall sadly chant thy dirge. + They come, they come, + The Spirits of the deep,-- + While near thy seaweed pillow + My lonely watch I keep. + + From far across the sea + I hear a loud lament, + By Echo's voice for thee + From Ocean's caverns sent. + O list! O list! + The Spirits of the deep! + They raise a wail of sorrow, + While I forever weep. + +With this last year of the life of Shelley these Notes end. They are +not what I intended them to be. I began with energy, and a burning +desire to impart to the world, in worthy language, the sense I have of +the virtues and genius of the beloved and the lost; my strength has +failed under the task. Recurrence to the past, full of its own deep and +unforgotten joys and sorrows, contrasted with succeeding years of +painful and solitary struggle, has shaken my health. Days of great +suffering have followed my attempts to write, and these again produced +a weakness and languor that spread their sinister influence over these +notes. I dislike speaking of myself, but cannot help apologizing to the +dead, and to the public, for not having executed in the manner I +desired the history I engaged to give of Shelley's writings. (I at one +time feared that the correction of the press might be less exact +through my illness; but I believe that it is nearly free from error. +Some asterisks occur in a few pages, as they did in the volume of +"Posthumous Poems", either because they refer to private concerns, or +because the original manuscript was left imperfect. Did any one see the +papers from which I drew that volume, the wonder would be how any eyes +or patience were capable of extracting it from so confused a mass, +interlined and broken into fragments, so that the sense could only be +deciphered and joined by guesses which might seem rather intuitive than +founded on reasoning. Yet I believe no mistake was made.) + +The winter of 1822 was passed in Pisa, if we might call that season +winter in which autumn merged into spring after the interval of but few +days of bleaker weather. Spring sprang up early, and with extreme +beauty. Shelley had conceived the idea of writing a tragedy on the +subject of Charles I. It was one that he believed adapted for a drama; +full of intense interest, contrasted character, and busy passion. He +had recommended it long before, when he encouraged me to attempt a +play. Whether the subject proved more difficult than he anticipated, or +whether in fact he could not bend his mind away from the broodings and +wanderings of thought, divested from human interest, which he best +loved, I cannot tell; but he proceeded slowly, and threw it aside for +one of the most mystical of his poems, the "Triumph of Life", on which +he was employed at the last. + +His passion for boating was fostered at this time by having among our +friends several sailors. His favourite companion, Edward Ellerker +Williams, of the 8th Light Dragoons, had begun his life in the navy, +and had afterwards entered the army; he had spent several years in +India, and his love for adventure and manly exercises accorded with +Shelley's taste. It was their favourite plan to build a boat such as +they could manage themselves, and, living on the sea-coast, to enjoy at +every hour and season the pleasure they loved best. Captain Roberts, +R.N., undertook to build the boat at Genoa, where he was also occupied +in building the "Bolivar" for Lord Byron. Ours was to be an open boat, +on a model taken from one of the royal dockyards. I have since heard +that there was a defect in this model, and that it was never seaworthy. +In the month of February, Shelley and his friend went to Spezia to seek +for houses for us. Only one was to be found at all suitable; however, a +trifle such as not finding a house could not stop Shelley; the one +found was to serve for all. It was unfurnished; we sent our furniture +by sea, and with a good deal of precipitation, arising from his +impatience, made our removal. We left Pisa on the 26th of April. + +The Bay of Spezia is of considerable extent, and divided by a rocky +promontory into a larger and smaller one. The town of Lerici is +situated on the eastern point, and in the depth of the smaller bay, +which bears the name of this town, is the village of San Terenzo. Our +house, Casa Magni, was close to this village; the sea came up to the +door, a steep hill sheltered it behind. The proprietor of the estate on +which it was situated was insane; he had begun to erect a large house +at the summit of the hill behind, but his malady prevented its being +finished, and it was falling into ruin. He had (and this to the +Italians had seemed a glaring symptom of very decided madness) rooted +up the olives on the hillside, and planted forest trees. These were +mostly young, but the plantation was more in English taste than I ever +elsewhere saw in Italy; some fine walnut and ilex trees intermingled +their dark massy foliage, and formed groups which still haunt my +memory, as then they satiated the eye with a sense of loveliness. The +scene was indeed of unimaginable beauty. The blue extent of waters, the +almost landlocked bay, the near castle of Lerici shutting it in to the +east, and distant Porto Venere to the west; the varied forms of the +precipitous rocks that bound in the beach, over which there was only a +winding rugged footpath towards Lerici, and none on the other side; the +tideless sea leaving no sands nor shingle, formed a picture such as one +sees in Salvator Rosa's landscapes only. Sometimes the sunshine +vanished when the sirocco raged--the 'ponente' the wind was called on +that shore. The gales and squalls that hailed our first arrival +surrounded the bay with foam; the howling wind swept round our exposed +house, and the sea roared unremittingly, so that we almost fancied +ourselves on board ship. At other times sunshine and calm invested sea +and sky, and the rich tints of Italian heaven bathed the scene in +bright and ever-varying tints. + +The natives were wilder than the place. Our near neighbours of San +Terenzo were more like savages than any people I ever before lived +among. Many a night they passed on the beach, singing, or rather +howling; the women dancing about among the waves that broke at their +feet, the men leaning against the rocks and joining in their loud wild +chorus. We could get no provisions nearer than Sarzana, at a distance +of three miles and a half off, with the torrent of the Magra between; +and even there the supply was very deficient. Had we been wrecked on an +island of the South Seas, we could scarcely have felt ourselves farther +from civilisation and comfort; but, where the sun shines, the latter +becomes an unnecessary luxury, and we had enough society among +ourselves. Yet I confess housekeeping became rather a toilsome task, +especially as I was suffering in my health, and could not exert myself +actively. + +At first the fatal boat had not arrived, and was expected with great +impatience. On Monday, 12th May, it came. Williams records the +long-wished-for fact in his journal: 'Cloudy and threatening weather. +M. Maglian called; and after dinner, and while walking with him on the +terrace, we discovered a strange sail coming round the point of Porto +Venere, which proved at length to be Shelley's boat. She had left Genoa +on Thursday last, but had been driven back by the prevailing bad winds. +A Mr. Heslop and two English seamen brought her round, and they speak +most highly of her performances. She does indeed excite my surprise and +admiration. Shelley and I walked to Lerici, and made a stretch off the +land to try her: and I find she fetches whatever she looks at. In +short, we have now a perfect plaything for the summer.'--It was thus +that short-sighted mortals welcomed Death, he having disguised his grim +form in a pleasing mask! The time of the friends was now spent on the +sea; the weather became fine, and our whole party often passed the +evenings on the water when the wind promised pleasant sailing. Shelley +and Williams made longer excursions; they sailed several times to +Massa. They had engaged one of the seamen who brought her round, a boy, +by name Charles Vivian; and they had not the slightest apprehension of +danger. When the weather was unfavourable, they employed themselves +with alterations in the rigging, and by building a boat of canvas and +reeds, as light as possible, to have on board the other for the +convenience of landing in waters too shallow for the larger vessel. +When Shelley was on board, he had his papers with him; and much of the +"Triumph of Life" was written as he sailed or weltered on that sea +which was soon to engulf him. + +The heats set in in the middle of June; the days became excessively +hot. But the sea-breeze cooled the air at noon, and extreme heat always +put Shelley in spirits. A long drought had preceded the heat; and +prayers for rain were being put up in the churches, and processions of +relics for the same effect took place in every town. At this time we +received letters announcing the arrival of Leigh Hunt at Genoa. Shelley +was very eager to see him. I was confined to my room by severe illness, +and could not move; it was agreed that Shelley and Williams should go +to Leghorn in the boat. Strange that no fear of danger crossed our +minds! Living on the sea-shore, the ocean became as a plaything: as a +child may sport with a lighted stick, till a spark inflames a forest, +and spreads destruction over all, so did we fearlessly and blindly +tamper with danger, and make a game of the terrors of the ocean. Our +Italian neighbours, even, trusted themselves as far as Massa in the +skiff; and the running down the line of coast to Leghorn gave no more +notion of peril than a fair-weather inland navigation would have done +to those who had never seen the sea. Once, some months before, Trelawny +had raised a warning voice as to the difference of our calm bay and the +open sea beyond; but Shelley and his friend, with their one sailor-boy, +thought themselves a match for the storms of the Mediterranean, in a +boat which they looked upon as equal to all it was put to do. + +On the 1st of July they left us. If ever shadow of future ill darkened +the present hour, such was over my mind when they went. During the +whole of our stay at Lerici, an intense presentiment of coming evil +brooded over my mind, and covered this beautiful place and genial +summer with the shadow of coming misery. I had vainly struggled with +these emotions--they seemed accounted for by my illness; but at this +hour of separation they recurred with renewed violence. I did not +anticipate danger for them, but a vague expectation of evil shook me to +agony, and I could scarcely bring myself to let them go. The day was +calm and clear; and, a fine breeze rising at twelve, they weighed for +Leghorn. They made the run of about fifty miles in seven hours and a +half. The "Bolivar" was in port; and, the regulations of the +Health-office not permitting them to go on shore after sunset, they +borrowed cushions from the larger vessel, and slept on board their +boat. + +They spent a week at Pisa and Leghorn. The want of rain was severely +felt in the country. The weather continued sultry and fine. I have +heard that Shelley all this time was in brilliant spirits. Not long +before, talking of presentiment, he had said the only one that he ever +found infallible was the certain advent of some evil fortune when he +felt peculiarly joyous. Yet, if ever fate whispered of coming disaster, +such inaudible but not unfelt prognostics hovered around us. The beauty +of the place seemed unearthly in its excess: the distance we were at +from all signs of civilization, the sea at our feet, its murmurs or its +roaring for ever in our ears,--all these things led the mind to brood +over strange thoughts, and, lifting it from everyday life, caused it to +be familiar with the unreal. A sort of spell surrounded us; and each +day, as the voyagers did not return, we grew restless and disquieted, +and yet, strange to say, we were not fearful of the most apparent +danger. + +The spell snapped; it was all over; an interval of agonizing doubt--of +days passed in miserable journeys to gain tidings, of hopes that took +firmer root even as they were more baseless--was changed to the +certainty of the death that eclipsed all happiness for the survivors +for evermore. + +There was something in our fate peculiarly harrowing. The remains of +those we lost were cast on shore; but, by the quarantine-laws of the +coast, we were not permitted to have possession of them--the law with +respect to everything cast on land by the sea being that such should be +burned, to prevent the possibility of any remnant bringing the plague +into Italy; and no representation could alter the law. At length, +through the kind and unwearied exertions of Mr. Dawkins, our Charge +d'Affaires at Florence, we gained permission to receive the ashes after +the bodies were consumed. Nothing could equal the zeal of Trelawny in +carrying our wishes into effect. He was indefatigable in his exertions, +and full of forethought and sagacity in his arrangements. It was a +fearful task; he stood before us at last, his hands scorched and +blistered by the flames of the funeral-pyre, and by touching the burnt +relics as he placed them in the receptacles prepared for the purpose. +And there, in compass of that small case, was gathered all that +remained on earth of him whose genius and virtue were a crown of glory +to the world--whose love had been the source of happiness, peace, and +good,--to be buried with him! + +The concluding stanzas of the "Adonais" pointed out where the remains +ought to be deposited; in addition to which our beloved child lay +buried in the cemetery at Rome. Thither Shelley's ashes were conveyed; +and they rest beneath one of the antique weed-grown towers that recur +at intervals in the circuit of the massy ancient wall of Rome. He +selected the hallowed place himself; there is + + 'the sepulchre, + Oh, not of him, but of our joy!-- + ... + And gray walls moulder round, on which dull Time + Feeds, like slow fire upon a hoary brand; + And one keen pyramid with wedge sublime, + Pavilioning the dust of him who planned + This refuge for his memory, doth stand + Like flame transformed to marble; and beneath, + A field is spread, on which a newer band + Have pitched in Heaven's smile their camp of death, + Welcoming him we lose with scarce extinguished breath.' + +Could sorrow for the lost, and shuddering anguish at the vacancy left +behind, be soothed by poetic imaginations, there was something in +Shelley's fate to mitigate pangs which yet, alas! could not be so +mitigated; for hard reality brings too miserably home to the mourner +all that is lost of happiness, all of lonely unsolaced struggle that +remains. Still, though dreams and hues of poetry cannot blunt grief, it +invests his fate with a sublime fitness, which those less nearly allied +may regard with complacency. A year before he had poured into verse all +such ideas about death as give it a glory of its own. He had, as it now +seems, almost anticipated his own destiny; and, when the mind figures +his skiff wrapped from sight by the thunder-storm, as it was last seen +upon the purple sea, and then, as the cloud of the tempest passed away, +no sign remained of where it had been (Captain Roberts watched the +vessel with his glass from the top of the lighthouse of Leghorn, on its +homeward track. They were off Via Reggio, at some distance from shore, +when a storm was driven over the sea. It enveloped them and several +larger vessels in darkness. When the cloud passed onwards, Roberts +looked again, and saw every other vessel sailing on the ocean except +their little schooner, which had vanished. From that time he could +scarcely doubt the fatal truth; yet we fancied that they might have +been driven towards Elba or Corsica, and so be saved. The observation +made as to the spot where the boat disappeared caused it to be found, +through the exertions of Trelawny for that effect. It had gone down in +ten fathom water; it had not capsized, and, except such things as had +floated from her, everything was found on board exactly as it had been +placed when they sailed. The boat itself was uninjured. Roberts +possessed himself of her, and decked her; but she proved not seaworthy, +and her shattered planks now lie rotting on the shore of one of the +Ionian islands, on which she was wrecked.)--who but will regard as a +prophecy the last stanza of the "Adonais"? + + 'The breath whose might I have invoked in song + Descends on me; my spirit's bark is driven, + Far from the shore, far from the trembling throng + Whose sails were never to the tempest given; + The massy earth and sphered skies are riven! + I am borne darkly, fearfully, afar; + Whilst burning through the inmost veil of Heaven, + The soul of Adonais, like a star, + Beacons from the abode where the Eternal are.' + +Putney, May 1, 1839. + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Complete Poetical Works of Percy +Bysshe Shelley Volume II, by Percy Bysshe Shelley + +*** END OF PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SHELLEY'S COMPLETE POETICAL WORKS *** + +This file should be named 4798.txt or 4798.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, shly211.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, shly210a.txt + +Produced by Sue Asscher <asschers@dingoblue.net.au> + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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