Shelley himself knew what it was to suffer from unkind
criticisms, and so he understood the feelings of another poet.
But although Keats did suffer something from neglect and cruelty,
he died of consumption, not of a broken heart.
Adonais ranks with Lycidas as one of the most beautiful elegies
in our language. In it, Shelley calls upon everything, upon
every thought and feeling, upon all poets, to weep for the loss
of Adonais.
"All he had loved, and moulded into thought
From shape, and hue, and odour, and sweet sound,
Lamented Adonais. Morning sought
Her eastern watch-tower, and her hair unbound,
Wet with the tears which should adorn the ground,
Dimmed the aerial eyes that kindle day;
Afar the melancholy thunder moaned,
Pale ocean in unquiet slumber lay,
And the wild winds flew around, sobbing in their dismay.
. . . . . . .
"The mountain shepherds came,
Their garlands sere, their magic mantles rent;
The Pilgrims of Eternity,* whose fame
Over his living head like Heaven is bent,
An early but enduring monument,
Came, veiling all the lightnings of his song
In sorrow; from her wilds Ierne** sent
The sweetest lyrist of her saddest wrong,
And love taught grief to fall like music from his tongue.
Pages:
920
921
922
923
924
925
926
927
928
929
930
931
932
933
934
935
936
937
938
939
940
941
942
943
944