LIV. That Light whose smile kindles the Universe, That Beauty in which all things work and move, That Benediction which the eclipsing Curse Of birth can quench not, that sustaining Love Which through the web of being blindly wove By man and beast and earth and air and sea, Burns bright or dim, as each are mirrors of The fire for which all thirst; now beams on me, Consuming the last clouds of cold mortality. LV. The breath whose might I have invoked in song I am borne darkly, fearfully, afar; Whilst burning through the inmost veil of Heaven, The soul of Adonais, like a star, Beacons from the abode where the Eternal are. 1 CANCELLED PASSAGES OF ADONAIS. 1 PASSAGES OF THE PREFACE. The expression of my indignation and sympathy. I will allow myself a first and last word on the subject of calumny as it relates to me. As an author I have dared and invited censure. If I understand myself, I have written neither for profit nor for fame. I have employed my poetical compositions and publications simply as the instruments of that sympathy between myself and others which the ardent and unbounded love I cherished for my kind incited me to acquire. I expected all sorts of stupidity and insolent contempt from those... .. These compositions (excepting the tragedy of the "Cenci," which was written rather to try my powers, than to unburthen my full heart) are insufficiently... commendation than perhaps they deserve, even from their bitterest enemies; but they have not attained any corresponding popularity. As a man, I shrink from notice and regard; the ebb and flow of the world vexes me; I desire to be left in peace. Persecution, contumely, and calumny, have been heaped upon me in profuse measure; and 1 These are from Mr. Garnett's Relics of Shelley, wherein, at page 48, we find the following interesting note :"Among Shelley's MSS. is a fair copy of the Defence of Poetry, apparently damaged by sea-water, and illegible in many places. Being prepared for the printer, it is written on one side of the paper only; on the blank pages, but frequently undecipherable for the reason just indicated, are many passages intended for, but eventually omitted from, the preface to Adonais. Their autobiographical value requires no comment." domestic conspiracy and legal oppression have violated in my person the most sacred rights of nature and humanity. The bigot will say it was the recompence of my errors; the man of the world will call it the result of my imprudence; but never upon one head. . . .. Reviewers, with some rare exceptions, are a most stupid and malignant race. As a bankrupt thief turns thieftaker in despair, so an unsuccessful author turns critic. But a young spirit panting for fame, doubtful of its powers, and certain only of its aspirations, is ill-qualified to assign its true value to the sneer of this world. He knows not that such stuff as this is of the abortive and monstrous births which time consumes as fast as it produces. He sees the truth and falsehood, the merits and demerits, of his case inextricably entangled... No personal offence should have drawn from me this public comment upon such stuff... ... The offence of this poor victim,1 seems to have consisted solely in his intimacy with Leigh Hunt, Mr. Hazlitt, and some other enemies of despotism and superstition. My friend Hunt has a very hard skull to crack, and will take a deal of killing. I do not know much of Mr. Hazlitt, but... ... I knew personally but little of Keats; but on the news of his situation I wrote to him, suggesting the propriety of trying the Italian climate, and inviting him to join me. Unfortunately he did not allow me. . . 1 Mr. Garnett says (Relics of Shelley, p. 50), "It is hardly necessary to repeat what Mr. Milnes [Lord Houghton] has so clearly established, that Shelley very greatly overrated the effect which the Quarterly's attack produced upon Keats. The error, however, was almost universal at the time." PASSAGES OF THE POEM.1 And ever as he went he swept a lyre Of unaccustomed shape, and Now like the strings of impetuous fire, Which shakes the forest with its murmurings, Now like the rush of the aërial wings Of the enamoured wind among the treen, Whispering unimaginable things, And dying on the streams of dew serene, Which feed the unmown meads with ever-during green. And the green Paradise which western waves Talking of freedom to their tongueless caves, A record of the wrongs which, though they sleep, His hymns, and echoing them from steep to steep, would be too long, and would tend to distract the reader's attention from the main subject. Nothing, there fore, of the original draft was allowed to subsist, but the four incomparable stanzas descriptive of himself" ("Mid others of less note,' &c.). A fifth was cancelled." The fifth stanza re ferred to by Mr. Garnett is that which stands first among the frag ments printed above,-" And ever as he went," &c. 2 Mr. Garnett says this passage refers to Moore. And then came one1 of sweet and earnest looks, His song, though very sweet, was low and faint, A mighty Phantasm,2 half concealed In darkness of his own exceeding light, Which clothed his awful presence unrevealed, night Of thunder-smoke, whose skirts were chrysolite. And like a sudden meteor, which outstrips The armies of the golden stars, each one 1 Leigh Hunt, Mr. Garnett says. * Of this final fragment Mr. Garnett offers no explanation; but surely we may, without hesitation, connect the name of Samuel Taylor Coleridge with it. Considering the wholly ideal manner in which other poets are dealt with in Adonais, the expressions here used are not disproportionate VOL. III. D when applied to Coleridge; and the You will see Coleridge-he who sits obscure |