The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Part 163

3.--SPIRIT OF PLATO.

FROM THE GREEK.

Eagle! why soarest thou above that tomb?

To what sublime and star-ypaven home Floatest thou?-- I am the image of swift Plato's spirit, Ascending heaven; Athens doth inherit _5 His corpse below.

NOTE: _5 doth Bos...o...b.. ma.n.u.script; does edition 1839.

4.--CIRc.u.mSTANCE.

FROM THE GREEK.

A man who was about to hang himself, Finding a purse, then threw away his rope; The owner, coming to reclaim his pelf, The halter found; and used it. So is Hope Changed for Despair--one laid upon the shelf, _5 We take the other. Under Heaven's high cope Fortune is G.o.d--all you endure and do Depends on circ.u.mstance as much as you.

FRAGMENT OF THE ELEGY ON THE DEATH OF ADONIS.

PROM THE GREEK OF BION.

[Published by Forman, "Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1876.]

I mourn Adonis dead--loveliest Adonis-- Dead, dead Adonis--and the Loves lament.

Sleep no more, Venus, wrapped in purple woof-- Wake violet-stoled queen, and weave the crown Of Death,--'tis Misery calls,--for he is dead. _5

The lovely one lies wounded in the mountains, His white thigh struck with the white tooth; he scarce Yet breathes; and Venus hangs in agony there.

The dark blood wanders o'er his snowy limbs, His eyes beneath their lids are l.u.s.treless, _10 The rose has fled from his wan lips, and there That kiss is dead, which Venus gathers yet.

A deep, deep wound Adonis...

A deeper Venus bears upon her heart.

See, his beloved dogs are gathering round-- _15 The Oread nymphs are weeping--Aphrodite With hair unbound is wandering through the woods, 'Wildered, ungirt, unsandalled--the thorns pierce Her hastening feet and drink her sacred blood.

Bitterly screaming out, she is driven on _20 Through the long vales; and her a.s.syrian boy, Her love, her husband, calls--the purple blood From his struck thigh stains her white navel now, Her bosom, and her neck before like snow.

Alas for Cytherea--the Loves mourn-- _25 The lovely, the beloved is gone!--and now Her sacred beauty vanishes away.

For Venus whilst Adonis lived was fair-- Alas! her loveliness is dead with him.

The oaks and mountains cry, Ai! ai! Adonis! _30 The springs their waters change to tears and weep-- The flowers are withered up with grief...

Ai! ai! ... Adonis is dead Echo resounds ... Adonis dead.

Who will weep not thy dreadful woe. O Venus? _35 Soon as she saw and knew the mortal wound Of her Adonis--saw the life-blood flow From his fair thigh, now wasting,--wailing loud She clasped him, and cried ... 'Stay, Adonis!

Stay, dearest one,... _40 and mix my lips with thine-- Wake yet a while, Adonis--oh, but once, That I may kiss thee now for the last time-- But for as long as one short kiss may live-- Oh, let thy breath flow from thy dying soul _45 Even to my mouth and heart, that I may suck That...'

NOTE: _23 his Rossetti, Dowden, Woodberry; her Bos...o...b.. ma.n.u.script, Forman.

FRAGMENT OF THE ELEGY ON THE DEATH OF BION.

FROM THE GREEK OF MOSCHUS.

[Published from the Hunt ma.n.u.scripts by Forman, "Poetical Works of P. B.

S.", 1876.]

Ye Dorian woods and waves, lament aloud,-- Augment your tide, O streams, with fruitless tears, For the beloved Bion is no more.

Let every tender herb and plant and flower, From each dejected bud and drooping bloom, _5 Shed dews of liquid sorrow, and with breath Of melancholy sweetness on the wind Diffuse its languid love; let roses blush, Anemones grow paler for the loss Their dells have known; and thou, O hyacinth, _10 Utter thy legend now--yet more, dumb flower, Than 'Ah! alas!'--thine is no common grief-- Bion the [sweetest singer] is no more.

NOTE: _2 tears]sorrow (as alternative) Hunt ma.n.u.script.

FROM THE GREEK OF MOSCHUS.

[Published with "Alastor", 1816.]

Tan ala tan glaukan otan onemos atrema Balle--k.t.l.

When winds that move not its calm surface sweep The azure sea, I love the land no more; The smiles of the serene and tranquil deep Tempt my unquiet mind.--But when the roar Of Ocean's gray abyss resounds, and foam _5 Gathers upon the sea, and vast waves burst, I turn from the drear aspect to the home Of Earth and its deep woods, where, interspersed, When winds blow loud, pines make sweet melody.

Whose house is some lone bark, whose toil the sea, _10 Whose prey the wandering fish, an evil lot Has chosen.--But I my languid limbs will fling Beneath the plane, where the brook's murmuring Moves the calm spirit, but disturbs it not.

PAN, ECHO, AND THE SATYR.

FROM THE GREEK OF MOSCHUS.

[Published (without t.i.tle) by Mrs. Sh.e.l.ley, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.

There is a draft amongst the Hunt ma.n.u.scripts.]

Pan loved his neighbour Echo--but that child Of Earth and Air pined for the Satyr leaping; The Satyr loved with wasting madness wild The bright nymph Lyda,--and so three went weeping.

As Pan loved Echo, Echo loved the Satyr, _5 The Satyr, Lyda; and so love consumed them.-- And thus to each--which was a woful matter-- To bear what they inflicted Justice doomed them; For, inasmuch as each might hate the lover, Each, loving, so was hated.--Ye that love not _10 Be warned--in thought turn this example over, That when ye love, the like return ye prove not.

NOTE: _6 so Hunt ma.n.u.script; thus 1824.

_11 So 1824; This lesson timely in your thoughts turn over, The moral of this song in thought turn over (as alternatives) Hunt ma.n.u.script.

FROM VERGIL'S TENTH ECLOGUE.

[VERSES 1-26.]

[Published by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870, from the Bos...o...b.. ma.n.u.scripts now in the Bodleian. Mr. Loc.o.c.k ("Examination", etc., 1903, pages 47-50), as the result of his collation of the same ma.n.u.scripts, gives a revised and expanded version which we print below.]

Melodious Arethusa, o'er my verse Shed thou once more the spirit of thy stream: Who denies verse to Gallus? So, when thou Glidest beneath the green and purple gleam Of Syracusan waters, mayst thou flow _5 Unmingled with the bitter Doric dew!

Begin, and, whilst the goats are browsing now The soft leaves, in our way let us pursue The melancholy loves of Gallus. List!