"To lighten a strange load!"-No human ear Heard this lament; but o'er the visage wan Of Athanase, a ruffling atmosphere Of dark emotion, a swift shadow ran, Beheld his mystic friend's whole being shake, And with a soft and equal pressure, prest -- 50 35 "Paused in yon waves her mighty horns to wet, How in those beams we walked, half resting on the sea? 'Tis just one year-sure thou dost not forget "Then Plato's words of light in thee and me. Lingered like moonlight in the moonless east, For we had just then read-thy memory 60 "Is faithful now-the story of the feast; 65 And Agathon and Diotima seemed From death and dark forgetfulness released. FRAGMENT III. "TWAS at the season when the Earth upsprings From slumber, as a sphered angel's child, Shadowing its eyes with green and golden wings, Stands up before its mother bright and mild, To see it rise thus joyous from its dreams, The grass in the warm sun did start and move, Loves then the shade of his own soul, half seen How many a spirit then puts on the pinions 5 10 15 Sweeps in his dream-drawn chariot, far and fast, 'Twas at this season that Prince Athanase Past the white Alps-those eagle-baffling mountains The waterfalls were voiceless-for their fountains 1 In the Posthumous Poems, under,—in the collected editions, beneath. 25 Which clanged along the mountain's marble brow, FRAGMENT IV. THOU art the wine whose drunkenness is all Catch thee, and feed from their o'erflowing bowls Investest1 it; and when the heavens are blue Its desarts and its mountains, till they wear In spring, which moves the unawakened forest, That which from thee they should implore:-the weak A garment whom thou clothest not? 1 In the Posthumous Poems this line stands thus, a foot short, Invests it; and when heavens are bluebut in the collected editions it is given as in the text. Mr. Rossetti substitutes investeth for investest. 2 Mr. Rossetti reads shadows. I know of no authority for this, and do not believe Shelley did or would sacri fice sound to grammar by the introduction of the 8. The grammar is also quite characteristic without it. FRAGMENT OF A LATER PART.1 HER hair was brown, her spherèd eyes were brown, Yet when the spirit flashed beneath, there came LINES.1 I. THE cold earth slept below; With a chilling sound, From caves of ice and fields of snow, The breath of night like death did flow Beneath the sinking moon. II. The wintry hedge was black, The green grass was not seen, On the bare thorn's breast, Whose roots, beside the pathway track, Which the frost had made between. |