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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.

IV

And, from a stone beside, a poisonous eft
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 After a taper; and the midnight sky Flares, a light more dread than obscurity.

V

'Tis the tempestuous loveliness of terror; For from the serpents gleams a brazen glare Kindled by that inextricable error,

Which makes a thrilling vapor 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.

THE INDIAN SERENADE

I

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,
And a spirit in my feet

Hath led me who knows how?
To thy chamber window, sweet!

II

The wandering airs, they faint
On the dark, the silent stream;
The champak odors fail

Like sweet thoughts in a dream;
The nightingale's complaint,
It dies upon her heart,

MS. || Song

Lines to an

The Indian Serenade, Browning MS., Harvard written for an Indian Air, The Liberal, ii., 1822. Indian Air, Mrs. Shelley, 1824. Published in The Liberal, ii.,

1822.

i. 2 In | From, Copy of Browning MS.

3 When, omit, Harvard MS.

4 shining || burning, Harvard MS., The Liberal, 1822.

7 Hath led, Browning MS., The Liberal, 1822 || Has borne, Harvard MS.; has led, Mrs. Shelley, 1824.

ii. 3 The champak odors fail, Harvard MS., The Liberal, 1822, Mrs. Shelley, 1824 || And the champak's, Browning MS. And the champak, Dowden. And the champak odors pine, Allingham. odors of my chaplet, Boscombe MS.

As I must die on thine,

Oh, beloved as thou art!

III

Oh, lift me from the grass!
I die! I faint! I fail!
Let thy love in kisses rain.
On my lips and eyelids pale.
My cheek is cold and white, alas!
My heart beats loud and fast,
Oh! press it close to thine again,
Where it will break at last.

TO SOPHIA

I

THOU art fair, and few are fairer
Of the nymphs of earth or ocean;
They are robes that fit the wearer

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Those soft limbs of thine, whose motion
Ever falls and shifts and glances

As the life within them dances.

ii. 7 die, Harvard MS., Mrs. Shelley, 18391 || omit, The Liberal, 1822, Mrs. Shelley, 1824.

ii. 8 Oh, Browning MS., Harvard MS., Mrs. Shelley, 18391 || omit, The Liberal, 1822, Mrs. Shelley, 1824.

iii. 7 press it close to thine, Harvard MS., Mrs. Shelley, 1824, 18391 || press it to thine own, Browning MS., press me to thine own, The Liberal, 1822.

iii. 8 will || must, Copy of Browning MS.

To Sophia Sophia, Stacey MS. Lines written for Miss Sophia Stacey, Rossetti, 1870. Published by Rossetti, 1870.

II

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
Which, like zephyrs on the billow,
Make thy gentle soul their pillow.

III

If, whatever face thou paintest

In those eyes, grows pale with pleasure, If the fainting soul is faintest

When it hears thy harp's wild measure, Wonder not that when thou speakest Of the weak my heart is weakest.

IV

As dew beneath the wind of morning,
As the sea which whirlwinds waken,
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.

ii. 4 tender, Stacey MS. || gentle, Stacey MS cancelled. 5 zephyrs, Stacey MS. || lightnings, Stacey MS. cancelled. 6 gentle, Stacey MS. || softest, Stacey MS. cancelled. iii. 2 those, Stacey MS. || thine, Stacey MS. cancelled. 3 soul, Stacey MS. || heart, Stacey MS. cancelled.

LOVE'S PHILOSOPHY

I

THE fountains mingle with the river,
And the rivers with the ocean;
The winds of heaven mix forever
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine.
In one another's being mingle:
Why not I with thine?

II

See the mountains kiss high heaven,
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister flower would be forgiven
If it disdained its brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea:
What are all these kissings worth,

If thou kiss not me?

Love's Philosophy, Hunt, 1819 || An Anacreontic, Harvard MS. Published by Hunt, The Indicator, December 22, 1819. Dated in the Harvard MS., January, 1820.

i. 3 mix forever, Stacey MS., Indicator, 1819 || melt together, Harvard MS.

i. 7 In one another's being, Harvard MS., Indicator, 1819 || In one spirit meet and, Stacey MS.

ii. 3 sister, Harvard MS., Stacey MS., Mrs. Shelley, 1824 || leaf or, Indicator, 1819.

ii. 4 disdained its, Harvard MS., Stacey MS., Mrs. Shelley, 1824 || disdained to kiss its, Indicator, 1819.

ii. 7 are all these kissings, Indicator, 1819 || all cancelled for were these examples, Harvard MS.; is all this sweet work, Stacey MS.

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