XXVIII

The thought of his own kind who made the soul

Which sped that wingèd shape through night

Look on the west, how beautiful it is

Vaulted with radiant vapors! The deep bliss
Of that unutterable light has made

The edges of that cloud

fade

Into a hue, like some harmonious thought,

Wasting itself on that which it had wrought,

Till it dies

and between

The light hues of the tender, pure, serene,

And infinite tranquillity of heaven.

Ay, beautiful! but when our

Perhaps the only comfort which remains
Is the unheeded clanking of my chains,
The which I make, and call it melody.

Lines written for Julian and Maddalo. Published by Garnett,

LINES WRITTEN FOR PROMETHEUS UNBOUND

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

Over the western mountain it enfolds,
When the sunset sleeps

Upon its snow;

As a strain of sweetest sound
Wraps itself the wind around,
Until the voiceless wind be music too;
As aught dark, vain and dull,
Basking in what is beautiful,
Is full of light and love.

LINES WRITTEN FOR MONT BLANC

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.

Lines written for Prometheus Unbound. Published by Mrs. Shelley, 18391.

Lines written for Mont Blanc. Published by Garnett, 1862.

LINES WRITTEN FOR THE INDIAN
SERENADE

O PILLOW cold and wet with tears!
Thou breathest sleep no more!

LINES WRITTEN FOR THE ODE TO LIBERTY

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 splendor of its presence, and the light Penetrates their dreamlike frame

Till they become charged with the strength of flame.

STANZA WRITTEN FOR THE ODE WRITTEN OCTOBER, 1819

GATHER, oh, 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,

Is at play with Freedom's fearless child
The dove and the serpent reconciled!

Lines written for the Indian Serenade. Published by Rossetti, 1870.

Lines written for the Ode to Liberty. Published by Garnett, 1862. Stanza written for the Ode written October, 1819. Published in The Times (Rossetti).

LINES CONNECTED WITH EPIPSYCHIDION

HERE, my dear friend, is a new book for you;
I have already dedicated two

To other friends, one female and one male,—
What you are is a thing that I must veil;
What can this be to those who praise or rail?
I never was attached to that great sect
Whose doctrine is that each one should select
Out of the world a mistress or a friend,

And all the rest, though fair and wise, commend
To cold oblivion - though 'tis in the code
Of modern morals, and the beaten road

Which those poor slaves with weary footsteps tread
Who travel to their home among the dead
By the broad highway of the world — and so
With one sad friend, and many a jealous foe,
The dreariest and the longest journey go.

Free love has this, different from gold and clay, That to divide is not to take away.

Like ocean, which the general north wind breaks
Into ten thousand waves, and each one makes
A mirror of the moon-like some great glass,
Which did distort whatever form might pass,
Dashed into fragments by a playful child,
Which then reflects its eyes and forehead mild ;
Giving for one, which it could ne'er express,
A thousand images of loveliness.

Lines connected with Epipsychidion. Published, 1-37, 62-91, by Mrs. Shelley, 18392, 1–174, by Garnett (To His Genius. Miscellaneous Fragments), 1862.

If I were one whom the loud world held wise, I should disdain to quote authorities In commendation of this kind of love. Why there is first the God in heaven above, Who wrote a book called Nature - - 'tis to be Reviewed, I hear, in the next Quarterly; And Socrates, the Jesus Christ of Greece, And Jesus Christ himself did never cease To urge all living things to love each other, And to forgive their mutual faults, and smother The Devil of disunion in their souls.

I love you! - Listen, O embodied Ray

Of the great Brightness; I must pass away While you remain, and these light words must be Tokens by which you may remember me.

Start not the thing you are is unbetrayed,

If you are human, and if but the shade

Of some sublimer Spirit.

And as to friend or mistress, 'tis a form;

Perhaps I wish you were one.

Some declare

You a familiar spirit, as you are;

Others with a

more inhuman

Hint that, though not my wife, you are a woman
What is the color of your eyes and hair?
Why, if you were a lady, it were fair

The world should know but, as I am afraid,
The Quarterly would bait you if betrayed;
And if, as it will be sport to see them stumble
Over all sorts of scandals, hear them mumble

29 commendation, Garnett, 1862 || the support, Mrs. Shelley, 18392. 54 if, omit, Rossetti.