O, weep for Adonais!?The quick0 Dreams,
living
The passion-winged Ministers of thought,
75 Who were his flocks,1 whom near the living streams
Of his young spirit he fed, and whom he taught
The love which was its music, wander not,?
Wander no more, from kindling brain to brain,
But droop there, whence they sprung; and mourn their lot
so Round the cold heart, where, after their sweet pain,
They ne'er will gather strength, or find a home again.
10
And one2 with trembling hands clasps his cold head,
And fans him with her moonlight wings, and cries;
'Our love, our hope, our sorrow, is not dead;
85 See, on the silken fringe of his faint eyes,
Like dew upon a sleeping flower, there lies
A tear some Dream has loosened from his brain.'
Lost Angel of a ruined Paradise!
She knew not 'twas her own; as with no stain
90 She faded, like a cloud which had outwept its rain.
11
One from a lucid0 urn of starry dew
luminous
Washed his light limbs as if embalming them;
Another clipt her profuse locks, and threw
The wreath upon him, like an anadem,0
rich garland
95 Which frozen tears instead of pearls begem;
Another in her wilful grief would break
Her bow and winged reeds, as if to stem
A greater loss with one which was more weak;
And dull the barbed fire against his frozen cheek.
12
IOO Another Splendour on his mouth alit,
That mouth, whence it was wont0 to draw the breath accustomed Which gave it strength to pierce the guarded wit,3
1. The products of Keats's imagination, figura- 2. One of the Dreams (line 73). tively represented (according to the conventions of 3. The cautious intellect (of the listener), the pastoral elegy) as his sheep.
.
82 6 / PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
And pass into the panting heart beneath
With lightning and with music: the damp death
105 Quenched its caress upon his icy lips;
And, as a dying meteor stains a wreath
Of moonlight vapour, which the cold night clips,
It flushed through his pale limbs, and past to its eclipse.
13
And others came . . . Desires and Adorations,
110 Winged Persuasions and veiled Destinies,
Splendours, and Glooms, and glimmering Incarnations
Of hopes and fears, and twilight Phantasies;
