PREFACE.

THE poetry, of Percy Bysshe Shelley, of wnica a new and carefully collated edition is here presented to the reader, displays the greatest depth of feeling, combined with an excess of refinement sometimes beyond the apprehension of ordinary readers. His command of language was perhaps, as great, as that of any modern poet; but the innate abstractedness of his mind often betrayed him into obscurities of expression which not all the efforts of the reader can at times penetrate. He seems, in many instances to have had a most refined ear for all the touching music of versification, and yet many of his best poems for their moral instructiveness, and chasteness of imagination, would be exceedingly valuable even in prose. There is a charm about his writings, not easily described, which redeems the errors more obvious to criticism, and which will ever render him a favorite with the lover of genuine poetry, though he may never be an object of universal admiration, as well by occasional obscurity, as by certain sentiments which do not accord with prevailing opinions. Yet it is at least honest and becoming in an editor, not to anticipate the public taste and obtrude his own, by culling from the bouquet such flowers as he may deem noxious or unsightly. It is the province of the public to select, from a complete edition, what may best suit every variety of taste and opinion. Had the brief span of Shelley's life been lengthened, there can be no doubt that the efforts of his more matured years would have

outshone in brilliancy even those of his contemporary rivals in the art; and yet the sublimity of many of his ideas, the rich vein of deep thought, and powerful feeling running through most of his productions, may render them perfect studies for the poet.

The poem of "Qeen Mab," which has been styled "his glory as a poet, and his shame as a man," was penned at the early age of 18. It contains many parts written in the most gorgeous and masterly style; and for descriptive power, perhaps is not excelled by any poem ever produced: but (as has been well observed)" the titles of the Divine Being are so often indecorously sported with in such outrageous paradoxes, coupled with much that is decidedly vile and detestable, that it may be safely asserted no individual retaining a spark of religious feeling, can ever have that spark extinguished by a perusal of the poem:"-this is an additional reason for retaining it in the present volume; it also contains peculiar and transcendent beauties which it might be deemed culpable to destroy.