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, All things rejoiced beneath the sun; the weeds, 1 This poem was first given by Mrs. Shelley in the first edition of 1839. 5 2 This fragment appeared in The Keepsake for 1829. The river, and the corn-fields, and the reeds ; 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. EPODE I. a. I STOOD within the city disinterred; 3 1 And heard the autumnal leaves like light footfalls 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 A plane of light between two Heavens of azure: 10 5 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. 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, It bore me like an Angel, o'er the waves Of the dead kings of Melody.1 There streamed a sunlight vapour, like the standard Whilst from all the coast, 46 Louder and louder, gathering round, there wandered 1 Homer and Virgil. [SHELLEY'S NOTE.] Over the oracular woods and divine sea Prophesyings which grew articulate— They seize me-I must speak them-be they fate! STROPHE a. 1. Naples! thou Heart of men which ever pantest Naked, beneath the lidless eye of heaven! The mutinous air and sea: they round thee, even Metropolis of a ruined Paradise 1 Long lost, late won, and yet but half regained! Bright Altar of the bloodless sacrifice, Which armed Victory offers up unstained To Love, the flower-enchained! Thou which wert once, and then didst cease to be, If Hope, and Truth, and Justice can avail, 50 54 60 65 STROPHE B. 2. Thou youngest giant birth Which from the groaning earth Leap'st, clothed in armour of impenetrable scale! 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! Hail, hail, all hail! 75 1 Cf. Adonais, Stanza X: Lost angel of a ruined Paradise! |