The red swift clouds of the hurricane Yon declining sun have overtaken, The clash of the hail sweeps over the plain- SECOND SPIRIT. I see the light, and I hear the sound; I'll sail on the flood of the tempest dark, And thou, when the gloom is deep and stark, My moon-like1 flight thou then may's mark 25 30 Some say there is a precipice. Where one vast pine is frozen to ruin And that the languid storm pursuing That winged shape, for ever flies Round those hoar branches, aye renewing Some say when nights are dry and clear, And a silver shape like his early love doth pass And when he awakes on the fragrant grass, 1 In the Posthumous Poems, moonlike; but moonlight in the editions of 1839. 2 In Mrs. Shelley's editions, makes. 335 40 46 SONG OF PROSERPINE, WHILE GATHERING FLOWERS ON THE PLAIN OF ENNA.1 I. SACRED Goddess, Mother Earth, Thou from whose immortal bosom, II. If with mists of evening dew Thou dost nourish these young flowers SUMMER AND WINTER. 2 It was a bright and cheerful afternoon, Opens beyond them like eternity. All things rejoiced beneath the sun; the weeds, 1 This poem was first given by Mrs. Shelley in the first edition of 1839. 5 This fragment appeared in The Keepsake for 1829. The river, and the corn-fields, and the reeds; The willow leaves that glanced in the light breeze, It was a winter such as when birds1 die 10 15 LINES TO A REVIEWER. 2 ALAS! good friend, what profit can you see In which not even contempt lurks, to beguile 1 In The Keepsake, do die; but do was omitted from the editions of 1839. 2 First given by Mrs. Shelley, as a sonnet, in the Posthumous Poems, wherein, in the second line, we read an, instead of the a of later editions. The title Lines to a Reviewer occurs in the first edition of 1839. ODE TO NAPLES. 1 EPODE I. a. 3 I STOOD within the city disinterred; 3 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; The oracular thunder penetrating shook The listening soul in my suspended blood; I felt, but heard not:-through white columns glowed A plane of light between two Heavens of azure: 5 10 15 1 The Author has connected many recollections of his visit to Pompeii and Baie 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.] 2 Mr. Swinburne seems to have expressed himself in a letter to Mr. Rossetti to the effect that the designation of the so-called epodes, and strophes and antistrophes, as given in editions previous to Mr. Rossetti's, is "chaotic to a degree," adding "They are, as far as I can see, hopelessly muddled; beginning with an Epode (after-song!)" As the foregoing note is clearly Shelley's, and speaks of the "introductory Epodes," that solecism is doubtless his; and I do not see much use in attempting to rename the various divisions, which are in all probability named according to Shelley's own intention. I therefore leave things as I find them in Mrs. Shelley's editions in this respect. 3 I presume the explanation " Pompeii," given here in a note, is Shelley's. 4 In the Posthumous Poems, these,in the collected editions, the. Like winter leaves o'ergrown by moulded snow, Weighed on their life; even as the Power divine EPODE II. a. Then gentle winds arose With many a mingled close Of wild Æolian sound and mountain-odour keen; Welters with airlike motion, Within, above, around its bowers of starry green, Floats o'er the Elysian realm, It bore me like an Angel, o'er the waves A spirit of deep emotion Of the dead kings of Melody.1 20 25 30 35 40 Shadowy Aornos darkened o'er the helm Whilst from all the coast, 46 Louder and louder, gathering round, there wandered 1 Homer and Virgil. [SHELLEY'S NOTE.] |