within the wind, As the fish within the wave, As the thoughts of man's own mind
Float through all above the grave, We make there, our liquid lair, Voyaging cloudlike and unpent0 Through the boundless element? Thence we bear the prophecy Which begins and ends in thee!
IONE
More yet come, one by one: the air around them Looks radiant as the air around a star.
FIRST SPIRIT
On a battle-trumpet's blast I fled hither, fast, fast, fast, Mid the darkness upward cast? From the dust of creeds outworn, From the tyrant's banner torn, Gathering round me, onward borne, There was mingled many a cry? Freedom! Hope! Death! Victory! Till they faded through the sky And one sound?above, around, One sound beneath, around, above, Was moving; 'twas the soul of love; 'Twas the hope, the prophecy, Which begins and ends in thee.
1. Identified by Earth at lines 658-63.
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PROMETHEU S UNBOUND , AC T 1 / 79 9 SECOND SPIRI T A rainbow's arch stood on the sea, Which rocked beneath, immoveably; 710 And the triumphant Storm did flee, Like a conqueror swift and proud Between, with many a captive cloud A shapeless, dark and rapid crowd, Each by lightning riven in half.? 715 I heard the thunder hoarsely laugh.? Mighty fleets were strewn like chaff And spread beneath, a hell of death O'er the white waters. I alit On a great ship lightning-split 720 And speeded hither on the sigh Of one who gave an enemy His plank?then plunged aside to die. THIR D SPIRI T I sate beside a sage's bed And the lamp was burning red 725 Near the book where he had fed, When a Dream with plumes of flame To his pillow hovering came, And I knew it was the same Which had kindled long ago 730 Pity, eloquence and woe; And the world awhile below Wore the shade its lustre made. It has borne me here as fleet As Desire's lightning feet: 735 I must ride it back ere morrow, Or the sage will wake in sorrow. FOURTH SPIRI T On a Poet's lips I slept Dreaming like a love-adept In the sound his breathing kept; Nor seeks nor finds he mortal blisses But feeds on the aerial kisses Of shapes that haunt thought's wildernesses. He will watch from dawn to gloom The lake-reflected sun illume The yellow bees i' the ivy-bloom Nor heed nor see, what things they be; But from these create he can Forms more real than living man, Nurslings0 of immortality!? children One of these awakened me And I sped to succour thee.
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80 0 / PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
IONE
Behold'st thou not two shapes from the East and West Come, as two doves to one beloved nest, Twin nurslings of the all-sustaining air,
755 On swift still wings glide down the atmosphere? And hark! their sweet, sad voices! 'tis despair Mingled with love, and then dissolved in sound.?
PANTHEA
Canst thou speak, sister? all my words are drowned.
IONE
Their beauty gives me voice. See how they float
760 On their sustaining wings of skiey grain, Orange and azure, deepening into gold: Their soft smiles light the air like a star's fire.
CHORUS OF SPIRITS
Hast thou beheld the form of Love?
FIFTH SPIRIT
As over wide dominions I sped, like some swift cloud that wings the wide air's wildernesses. 765 That planet-crested Shape swept by on lightning-braided pinions,0 wings Scattering the liquid joy of life from his ambrosial0 tresses: heavenly
His footsteps paved the world with light?but as I past 'twas fading And hollow Ruin yawned behind. Great Sages bound in madness And headless patriots and pale youths who perished unupbraiding,
770 Gleamed in the Night I wandered o'er?till thou, O King of sadness, Turned by thy smile the worst I saw to recollected gladness.
SIXTH SPIRIT
Ah, sister! Desolation is a delicate thing: It walks not on the Earth, it floats not on the air, But treads with silent footstep, and fans with silent wing
775 The tender hopes which in their hearts the best and gentlest bear, Who, soothed to false repose by the fanning plumes above And the music-stirring motion of its soft and busy feet, Dreams visions of aerial joy, and call the monster, Love, And wake, and find the shadow Pain?as he whom now we greet.
CHORUS
780 Though Ruin now Love's shadow be, Following him destroyingly On Death's white and winged steed, Which the fleetest cannot flee? Trampling down both flower and weed, 785 Man and beast and foul and fair,
2. Without uttering reproaches.
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PROMETHEU S UNBOUND , AC T 1 / 80 1 Like a tempest through the air; Thou shalt quell this Horseman grim, Woundless though in heart or limb.? PROMETHEU S Spirits! how know ye this shall be? CHORUS 790795 In the atmosphere we breathe? As buds grow red when snow-storms flee From spring gathering up beneath, Whose mild winds shake, the elder brake0And the wandering herdsmen know That the white-thorn soon will blow? thicket Wisdom, Justice, Love and Peace, When they struggle to increase, Are to us as soft winds be sooTo shepherd- boys?the prophecy Which begins and ends in thee. IONE Where are the Spirits fled? PANTHEA 805Only a sense
