instantly exerted himself to have the opinions, carried even to their utmost plan executed. He did not intend him- extent, he wished to live and die, as self joining in the work: partly from being in his conviction not only true, pride, not wishing to have the air of but such as alone would conduce to the acquiring readers for his poetry by as- moral improvement and happiness of sociating it with the compositions of mankind. The sale of the work might more popular writers; and also because meanwhile, either really or supposedly, he might feel shackled in the free ex-be injured by the free expression of pression of his opinions, if any friends his thoughts; and this evil he resolved were to be compromised. By those to avoid.

POEMS WRITTEN IN 1822

THE ZUCCA

[Published by Mrs. Shelley, Posthumous Poems, 1824, and dated 'January, 1822.' There is a copy amongst the Boscombe MSS.]

I

SUMMER was dead and Autumn was expiring,
And infant Winter laughed upon the land
All cloudlessly and cold;-when I, desiring
More in this world than any understand,
Wept o'er the beauty, which, like sea retiring,

Had left the earth bare as the wave-worn sand
Of my lorn heart, and o'er the grass and flowers
Pale for the falsehood of the flattering Hours.

II

Summer was dead, but I yet lived to weep
The instability of all but weeping;
And on the Earth lulled in her winter sleep
I woke, and envied her as she was sleeping.
Too happy Earth! over thy face shall creep
The wakening vernal airs, until thou, leaping
From unremembered dreams, shalt
No death divide thy immortality.

III

I loved-oh, no, I mean not one of ye,
Or any earthly one, though ye are dear

see

As human heart to human heart may be ;—

I loved, I know not what-but this low sphere

And all that it contains, contains not thee,
Thou, whom, seen nowhere, I feel everywhere.
From Heaven and Earth, and all that in them are,
Veiled art thou, like a

IV

star.

By Heaven and Earth, from all whose shapes thou flowest,
Neither to be contained, delayed, nor hidden;

Making divine the loftiest and the lowest,

5

ΤΟ

15

20

25

23 So Boscombe MS.; Dim object of my

24 star Boscombe MS.; wanting ed. 1824.

7 lorn Boscombe MS.; poor ed. 1824. soul's idolatry ed. 1824.

THE ZUCCA

When for a moment thou art not forbidden

To live within the life which thou bestowest

And leaving noblest things vacant and chidden, Cold as a corpse after the spirit's flight,

Blank as the sun after the birth of night.

V

In winds, and trees, and streams, and all things common,
In music and the sweet unconscious tone

Of animals, and voices which are human,
Meant to express some feelings of their own;
In the soft motions and rare smile of woman,
In flowers and leaves, and in the grass
Or dying in the autumn, I the most
Adore thee present or lament thee lost.

VI

fresh-shown,

And thus I went lamenting, when I saw
A plant upon the river's margin lie,
Like one who loved beyond his nature's law,
And in despair had cast him down to die;
Its leaves, which had outlived the frost, the thaw
Had blighted; like a heart which hatred's eye
Can blast not, but which pity kills; the dew
Lay on its spotted leaves like tears too true.

VII

The Heavens had wept upon it, but the Earth
Had crushed it on her unmaternal breast

659

30

35

10

VIII

I bore it to my chamber, and I planted
It in a vase full of the lightest mould;
The winter beams which out of Heaven slanted

Fell through the window-panes, disrobed of cold,
Upon its leaves and flowers; the stars which panted
In evening for the Day, whose car has rolled
Over the horizon's wave, with looks of light
Smiled on it from the threshold of the night.

IX

The mitigated influences of air

And light revived the plant, and from it grew
Strong leaves and tendrils, and its flowers fair,
Full as a cup with the vine's burning dew,
O'erflowed with golden colours; an atmosphere
Of vital warmth enfolded it anew,
And every impulse sent to every part
The unbeheld pulsations of its heart.

38 grass fresh Boscombe MS.; fresh grass ed. 1824.

55

46 like Boscombe MS.; as ed. 1824.

60

65

Χ

Well might the plant grow beautiful and strong,
Even if the air and sun had smiled not on it;
For one wept o'er it all the winter long

Tears pure as Heaven's rain, which fell upon it
Hour after hour; for sounds of softest song

Mixed with the stringed melodies that won it
To leave the gentle lips on which it slept,
Had loosed the heart of him who sat and wept.

XI

Had loosed his heart, and shook the leaves and flowers
On which he wept, the while the savage storm

Waked by the darkest of December's hours

70

75

Was raving round the chamber hushed and warm;

80

The birds were shivering in their leafless bowers,
The fish were frozen in the pools, the form

Of every summer plant was dead.

Whilst this.

THE MAGNETIC LADY TO HER PATIENT [Published by Medwin, The Athenæum, August 11, 1832. There is a copy amongst the Trelawny MSS.]

'Like a cloud big with a May shower,
My soul weeps healing rain
On thee, thou withered flower!
It breathes mute music on thy sleep;
Its odour calms thy brain!
Its light within thy gloomy breast
Spreads like a second youth again.
By mine thy being is to its deep 35
Possessed.

I, 10 Sleep Trelawny MS., 16 charmed Trelawny MS.; chased

68 air and sun Boscombe MS.; sun and air ed. 1824 1839, 2nd ed.; Sleep on 1832, 1839, 1st ed.

1832, edd. 1839.

21 love] woe 1832.

'The spell is done. How feel you

now?'

'Better-Quite well,' replied The sleeper. What would do 39 You good when suffering and awake?

What cure your head and side?'What would cure, that would kill me, Jane:

And as I must on earth abide Awhile, yet tempt me not to break My chain.'

LINES: WHEN THE LAMP IS SHATTERED' [Published by Mrs. Shelley, Posthumous Poems, 1824. There is a copy amongst the Trelawny MSS.]

45

When hearts have once mingled
Love first leaves the well-built nest;
The weak one is singled

To endure what it once possessed. 20
O Love! who bewailest

The frailty of all things here,

Why choose you the frailest For your cradle, your home, and your bier ?

IV

Its passions will rock thee

25

Survive not the lamp and the As the storms rock the ravens on

high;

Bright reason will mock thee,
Like the sun from a wintry sky.
From thy nest every rafter
Will rot, and thine eagle home
Leave thee naked to laughter,
When leaves fall and cold winds

come.

TO JANE: THE INVITATION

30

[This and the following poem were published together in their original form as one piece under the title, The Pine Forest of the Cascine near Pisa, by Mrs. Shelley, Posthumous Poems, 1824; reprinted in the same shape, P. W., 1839, 1st ed.; republished separately in their present form, P. W., 1839, 2nd ed. There is a copy amongst the Trelawny MSS.] BEST and brightest, come away! Fairer far than this fair Day, Which, like thee to those in sorrow, Comes to bid a sweet good-morrow To the rough Year just awake In its cradle on the brake.

42 so Trelawny MS.; "Twould kill me 6 tones ed. 1824; notes Trelawny MS. 16 dead ed. 1824; lost Trelawny MS. 25-32 wanting Trelawny MS.

5

The brightest hour of unborn Spring,
Through the winter wandering,
Found, it seems, the halcyon Morn
To hoar February born.
Bending from Heaven, in azure
mirth,

10

what would cure my pain 1832, edd. 1839. 14 through ed. 1824; in Trelawny MS. 23 choose ed. 1824; chose Trelawny MS.

TO JANE: THE RECOLLECTION

[Published by Mrs. Shelley, P. W., 1839, 2nd ed. See the Editor's prefatory note to the preceding.]

The clouds were gone to play,
And on the bosom of the deep
The smile of Heaven lay;
It seemed as if the hour were one
44 moment's Trelawny MS.; moment
53 dun Trelawny MS.;
10 Ocean's]

50 And Trelawny MS.; To 1839, 2nd ed.
6 fled ed. 1824; dead Trelawny MS., 1839, 2nd ed.