The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Part 98

'Of him who from the lowest depths of h.e.l.l, Through every paradise and through all glory, Love led serene, and who returned to tell

'The words of hate and awe; the wondrous story _475 How all things are transfigured except Love; For deaf as is a sea, which wrath makes h.o.a.ry,

'The world can hear not the sweet notes that move The sphere whose light is melody to lovers-- A wonder worthy of his rhyme.--The grove _480

'Grew dense with shadows to its inmost covers, The earth was gray with phantoms, and the air Was peopled with dim forms, as when there hovers

'A flock of vampire-bats before the glare Of the tropic sun, bringing, ere evening, _485 Strange night upon some Indian isle;--thus were

'Phantoms diffused around; and some did fling Shadows of shadows, yet unlike themselves, Behind them; some like eaglets on the wing

'Were lost in the white day; others like elves _490 Danced in a thousand unimagined shapes Upon the sunny streams and gra.s.sy shelves;

'And others sate chattering like restless apes On vulgar hands,...

Some made a cradle of the ermined capes _495

'Of kingly mantles; some across the tiar Of pontiffs sate like vultures; others played Under the crown which girt with empire

'A baby's or an idiot's brow, and made Their nests in it. The old anatomies _500 Sate hatching their bare broods under the shade

'Of daemon wings, and laughed from their dead eyes To rea.s.sume the delegated power, Arrayed in which those worms did monarchize,

'Who made this earth their charnel. Others more _505 Humble, like falcons, sate upon the fist Of common men, and round their heads did soar;

Or like small gnats and flies, as thick as mist On evening marshes, thronged about the brow Of lawyers, statesmen, priest and theorist;-- _510

'And others, like discoloured flakes of snow On fairest bosoms and the sunniest hair, Fell, and were melted by the youthful glow

'Which they extinguished; and, like tears, they were A veil to those from whose faint lids they rained _515 In drops of sorrow. I became aware

'Of whence those forms proceeded which thus stained The track in which we moved. After brief s.p.a.ce, From every form the beauty slowly waned;

'From every firmest limb and fairest face _520 The strength and freshness fell like dust, and left The action and the shape without the grace

'Of life. The marble brow of youth was cleft With care; and in those eyes where once hope shone, Desire, like a lioness bereft _525

'Of her last cub, glared ere it died; each one Of that great crowd sent forth incessantly These shadows, numerous as the dead leaves blown

'In autumn evening from a poplar tree. _530 Each like himself and like each other were At first; but some distorted seemed to be

'Obscure clouds, moulded by the casual air; And of this stuff the car's creative ray Wrought all the busy phantoms that were there,

'As the sun shapes the clouds; thus on the way _535 Mask after mask fell from the countenance And form of all; and long before the day

'Was old, the joy which waked like heaven's glance The sleepers in the oblivious valley, died; And some grew weary of the ghastly dance, _540

'And fell, as I have fallen, by the wayside;-- Those soonest from whose forms most shadows pa.s.sed, And least of strength and beauty did abide.

'Then, what is life? I cried.'--

CANCELLED OPENING OF THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE.

[Published by Miss M. Blind, "Westminster Review", July, 1870.]

Out of the eastern shadow of the Earth, Amid the clouds upon its margin gray Scattered by Night to swathe in its bright birth

In gold and fleecy snow the infant Day, The glorious Sun arose: beneath his light, _5 The earth and all...

_10-_17 A widow...sound 1870; omitted here 1824; printed as 'A Song,' 1824, page 217.

_34, _35 dawn Bathe Mrs. Sh.e.l.ley (later editions); dawn, Bathed 1824, 1839.

_63 shunned Bos...o...b.. ma.n.u.script; spurned 1824, 1839.

_70 Of...interspersed Bos...o...b.. ma.n.u.script; Of gra.s.sy paths and wood, lawn-interspersed 1824; wood-lawn-interspersed 1839.

_84 form]frown 1824.

_93 light...beam]light upon the chariot beam; 1824.

_96 it omitted 1824.

_109 thunder Bos...o...b.. ma.n.u.script; thunders 1824; thunder's 1839.

_112 greet Bos...o...b.. ma.n.u.script; meet 1824, 1839.

_129 conqueror or conqueror's cj. A.C. Bradley.

_131-_134 See Editor's Note.

_158 while Bos...o...b.. ma.n.u.script; omitted 1824, 1839.

_167 And...dance 1839 To seek, to [ ], to strain 1824.

_168 Seeking 1839; Limping 1824.

_188 canst, Mrs. Sh.e.l.ley 1824, 1839, 1847.

_189 forborne!' 1824, 1839, 1847.

_190 Feature, (of my thought aware); Mrs. Sh.e.l.ley 1847.

_188-_190 The punctuation is A.C. Bradley's.

_202 nutriment Bos...o...b.. ma.n.u.script; sentiment 1824, 1839.

_205 Stain]Stained 1824, 1839.

_235 Said my 1824, 1839; Said then my cj. Forman.

_238 names which the 1839: name the 1824.

_252 how]now cj. Forman.

_260 him 1839; omitted 1824.

_265 singled for cj. Forman.

_280 See Editor's Note.

_281, _282 Even...then Bos...o...b.. ma.n.u.script; omitted 1824, 1839.

_296 camest Bos...o...b.. ma.n.u.script; comest 1824, 1839.

_311 season Bos...o...b.. ma.n.u.script; year's dawn 1824, 1839.

_322 the Bos...o...b.. ma.n.u.script; her 1824, 1839.

_334 woke cj. A.C. Bradley; wake 1824, 1839. Cf. _296, footnote.

_361 Of...and Bos...o...b.. ma.n.u.script; Out of the deep cavern with 1824, 1839.

_363 Glided Bos...o...b.. ma.n.u.script; She glided 1824, 1839.

_377 in Bos...o...b.. ma.n.u.script; to 1824.

_422 The favourite song, Stanco di pascolar le pecorelle, is a Brescian national air.--[MRS. Sh.e.l.lEY'S NOTE.]

_464 early]aery cj. Forman.

_475 awe Bos...o...b.. ma.n.u.script; care 1824.

_486 isle Bos...o...b.. ma.n.u.script; vale 1824.

_497 sate like vultures Bos...o...b.. ma.n.u.script; rode like demons 1824.