Higher still and higher, From the earth thou springest Like a cloud of fire; The blue deep thou wingest, And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest. In the golden lightning Of the sunken sun, O'er which clouds are bright'ning, Thou dost float and run, Like an unbodied joy whose race is just begun. The pale purple even Melts around thy flight; Like a star of heaven In the broad daylight, Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight. Keen as are the arrows Of that silver sphere, Whose intense lamp narrows In the white dawn clear, Until we hardly see, we feel that it is there. All the earth and air With thy voice is loud, From one lonely cloud The moon rains out her beams, and heaven is overflow'd. What thou art, we know not; What is most like thee; From rainbow clouds there flow not Drops so bright to see, As from thy presence showers a rain of melody. Like a poet hidden In the light of thought, Till the world is wrought To sympathy with hopes and fears it heeded not. THE SKYLARK. Like a high-born maiden Soul in secret hour With music sweet as love, which overflows her bower. Like a glowworm golden In a dell of dew, Scattering unbeholden Its aërial hue Among the flowers and grass, which screen it from the view. Like a rose embower'd In its own green leaves, By warm winds deflower'd, Till the scent it gives Makes faint with too much sweet these heavy-wingèd thieves. Sound of vernal showers On the twinkling grass, Rain-awaken'd flowers, All that ever was Joyous, and clear, and fresh, thy music doth surpass. Teach us, sprite, or bird, What sweet thoughts are thine I have never heard Praise of love or wine That panted forth a flood of rapture so divine. Chorus hymeneal, Or triumphal chaunt, Matched with thine would be all But an empty vaunt— : A thing wherein we feel there is some hidden want. 55 What objects are the fountains Of thy happy strain? What fields, or waves, or mountains? What shapes of sky or plain? What love of thine own kind? what ignorance of pain? With thy clear, keen joyance Languor cannot be ; Shadow of annoyance Never came near thee: Thou lovest; but ne'er knew love's sad satiety. Waking or asleep, Thou of death must deem Things more true and deep Than we mortals dream, Or how could thy notes flow in such a crystal stream? We look before and after, And pine for what is not; Our sincerest laughter With some pain is fraught ; Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought. Yet if we could scorn Hate, and pride, and fear; If we were things born Not to shed a tear, I know not how thy joy we ever should come near. Better than all measures Of delightful sound, Better than all treasures That in books are found, Thy skill to poet were, thou scorner of the ground! TRUE LOVELINESS. Teach me half the gladness. That thy brain must know, From my lips would flow, The world should listen then, as I am listening now. 57 [Of the poetry of PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY it is difficult to speak without a mournful feeling, that so much grandeur and beauty should be marred by the stain of infidelity, but too plainly visible in several of the writings of this gifted poet. Shelley was born in 1792, and received his education at Eton and Oxford. From the university he was expelled, perhaps harshly, for atheistical doubts, which a milder treatment might have eradicated. His subsequent life was passed chiefly in Italy, where he met with an early death. He was drowned by the upsetting of his sailing boat during a sudden storm. Gorgeous in imagination and instinct with beauty as his works are, it is to be regretted that many of them have not been suppressed. The subject of the "Cenci," his great tragedy, is revolting in its horror.] H |