The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Part 164

We sing not to the dead: the wild woods knew _10 His sufferings, and their echoes...

Young Naiads,...in what far woodlands wild Wandered ye when unworthy love possessed Your Gallus? Not where Pindus is up-piled, Nor where Parna.s.sus' sacred mount, nor where _15 Aonian Aganippe expands...

The laurels and the myrtle-copses dim.

The pine-encircled mountain, Maenalus, The cold crags of Lycaeus, weep for him; And Sylvan, crowned with rustic coronals, _20 Came shaking in his speed the budding wands And heavy lilies which he bore: we knew Pan the Arcadian.

'What madness is this, Gallus? Thy heart's care With willing steps pursues another there.' _25

THE SAME.

(As revised by Mr. C.D. Loc.o.c.k.)

Melodious Arethusa, o'er my verse Shed thou once more the spirit of thy stream:

(Two lines missing.)

Who denies verse to Gallus? So, when thou Glidest beneath the green and purple gleam Of Syracusan waters, mayest thou flow _5 Unmingled with the bitter Dorian dew!

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

We sing not to the deaf: the wild woods knew _10 His sufferings, and their echoes answer...

Young Naiades, in what far woodlands wild Wandered ye, when unworthy love possessed Our Gallus? Nor where Pindus is up-piled, Nor where Parna.s.sus' sacred mount, nor where _15 Aonian Aganippe spreads its...

(Three lines missing.)

The laurels and the myrtle-copses dim, The pine-encircled mountain, Maenalus, The cold crags of Lycaeus weep for him.

(Several lines missing.)

'What madness is this, Gallus? thy heart's care, _20 Lycoris, mid rude camps and Alpine snow, With willing step pursues another there.'

(Some lines missing.)

And Sylvan, crowned with rustic coronals, Came shaking in his speed the budding wands And heavy lilies which he bore: we knew _25 Pan the Arcadian with....

...and said, 'Wilt thou not ever cease? Love cares not.

The meadows with fresh streams, the bees with thyme, The goats with the green leaves of budding spring _30 Are saturated not--nor Love with tears.'

FROM VERGIL'S FOURTH GEORGIC.

[VERSES 360 ET SEQ.]

[Published by Loc.o.c.k, "Examination", etc., 1903.]

And the cloven waters like a chasm of mountains Stood, and received him in its mighty portal And led him through the deep's untrampled fountains

He went in wonder through the path immortal Of his great Mother and her humid reign _5 And groves profaned not by the step of mortal

Which sounded as he pa.s.sed, and lakes which rain Replenished not girt round by marble caves 'Wildered by the watery motion of the main

Half 'wildered he beheld the bursting waves _10 Of every stream beneath the mighty earth Phasis and Lycus which the ... sand paves,

[And] The chasm where old Enipeus has its birth And father Tyber and Anienas[?] glow And whence Caicus, Mysian stream, comes forth _15

And rock-resounding Hypanis, and thou Erida.n.u.s who bearest like empire's sign Two golden horns upon thy taurine brow

Thou than whom none of the streams divine Through garden-fields and meads with fiercer power, _20 Burst in their tumult on the purple brine

SONNET.

FROM THE ITALIAN OF DANTE.

[Published with "Alastor", 1816; reprinted, "Posthumous Poems", 1824.]

DANTE ALIGHIERI TO GUIDO CAVALCANTI:

Guido, I would that Lapo, thou, and I, Led by some strong enchantment, might ascend A magic ship, whose charmed sails should fly With winds at will where'er our thoughts might wend, So that no change, nor any evil chance _5 Should mar our joyous voyage; but it might be, That even satiety should still enhance Between our hearts their strict community: And that the bounteous wizard then would place Vanna and Bice and my gentle love, _10 Companions of our wandering, and would grace With pa.s.sionate talk, wherever we might rove, Our time, and each were as content and free As I believe that thou and I should be.

_5 So 1824; And 1816.

THE FIRST CANZONE OF THE CONVITO.

FROM THE ITALIAN OF DANTE.

[Published by Garnett, "Relics of Sh.e.l.ley", 1862; dated 1820.]

1.

Ye who intelligent the Third Heaven move, Hear the discourse which is within my heart, Which cannot be declared, it seems so new.

The Heaven whose course follows your power and art, Oh, gentle creatures that ye are! me drew, _5 And therefore may I dare to speak to you, Even of the life which now I live--and yet I pray that ye will hear me when I cry, And tell of mine own heart this novelty; How the lamenting Spirit moans in it, _10 And how a voice there murmurs against her Who came on the refulgence of your sphere.

2.

A sweet Thought, which was once the life within This heavy heart, man a time and oft Went up before our Father's feet, and there _15 It saw a glorious Lady throned aloft; And its sweet talk of her my soul did win, So that I said, 'Thither I too will fare.'

That Thought is fled, and one doth now appear Which tyrannizes me with such fierce stress, _20 That my heart trembles--ye may see it leap-- And on another Lady bids me keep Mine eyes, and says--Who would have blessedness Let him but look upon that Lady's eyes, Let him not fear the agony of sighs. _25

3.

This lowly Thought, which once would talk with me Of a bright seraph sitting crowned on high, Found such a cruel foe it died, and so My Spirit wept, the grief is hot even now-- And said, Alas for me! how swift could flee _30 That piteous Thought which did my life console!

And the afflicted one ... questioning Mine eyes, if such a Lady saw they never, And why they would...

I said: 'Beneath those eyes might stand for ever _35 He whom ... regards must kill with...

To have known their power stood me in little stead, Those eyes have looked on me, and I am dead.'