The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Part 199

Paler is yon maiden; _5 Faster is her heart's decay; Deep with sorrow laden, She sinks in death away.

FRAGMENT FROM THE WANDERING JEW.

[Published as Sh.e.l.ley's by Medwin, "Life of Sh.e.l.ley", 1847, 1 page 56.]

The Elements respect their Maker's seal!

Still Like the scathed pine tree's height, Braving the tempests of the night Have I 'scaped the flickering flame.

Like the scathed pine, which a monument stands _5 Of faded grandeur, which the brands Of the tempest-shaken air Have riven on the desolate heath; Yet it stands majestic even in death, And rears its wild form there. _10,

TO THE QUEEN OF MY HEART.

[Published as Sh.e.l.ley's by Medwin, "The Sh.e.l.ley Papers", 1833, and by Mrs. Sh.e.l.ley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition; afterwards suppressed as of doubtful authenticity.]

1.

Shall we roam, my love, To the twilight grove, When the moon is rising bright; Oh, I'll whisper there, In the cool night-air, _5 What I dare not in broad daylight!

2.

I'll tell thee a part Of the thoughts that start To being when thou art nigh; And thy beauty, more bright _10 Than the stars' soft light, Shall seem as a weft from the sky.

3.

When the pale moonbeam On tower and stream Sheds a flood of silver sheen, _15 How I love to gaze As the cold ray strays O'er thy face, my heart's throned queen!

4.

Wilt thou roam with me To the restless sea, _20 And linger upon the steep, And list to the flow Of the waves below How they toss and roar and leap?

5.

Those boiling waves, _25 And the storm that raves At night o'er their foaming crest, Resemble the strife That, from earliest life, The pa.s.sions have waged in my breast. _30

6.

Oh, come then, and rove To the sea or the grove, When the moon is rising bright; And I'll whisper there, In the cool night-air, _35 What I dare not in broad daylight.

NOTES ON THE TEXT AND ITS PUNCTUATION.

In the case of every poem published during Sh.e.l.ley's lifetime, the text of this edition is based upon that of the editio princeps or earliest issue. Wherever our text deviates verbally from this exemplar, the word or words of the editio princeps will be found recorded in a footnote. In like manner, wherever the text of the poems first printed by Mrs.

Sh.e.l.ley in the "Posthumous Poems" of 1824 or the "Poetical Works" of 1839 is modified by ma.n.u.script authority or otherwise, the reading of the earliest printed text has been subjoined in a footnote. Sh.e.l.ley's punctuation--or what may be presumed to be his--has been retained, save in the case of errors (whether of the transcriber or the printer) overlooked in the revision of the proof-sheets, and of a few places where the pointing, though certainly or seemingly Sh.e.l.ley's, tends to obscure the sense or grammatical construction. In the following notes the more important textual difficulties are briefly discussed, and the readings embodied in the text of this edition, it is hoped, sufficiently justified. An attempt has also been made to record the original punctuation where it is here departed from.

1.

THE DAEMON OF THE WORLD: PART 1.

The following paragraph, relating to this poem, closes Sh.e.l.ley's "Preface" to "Alastor", etc., 1816:--'The Fragment ent.i.tled "The Daemon of the World" is a detached part of a poem which the author does not intend for publication. The metre in which it is composed is that of "Samson Agonistes" and the Italian pastoral drama, and may be considered as the natural measure into which poetical conceptions, expressed in harmonious language, necessarily fall.'

2.

Lines 56, 112, 184, 288. The editor has added a comma at the end of these lines, and a period (for the comma of 1816) after by, line 279.

3.

Lines 167, 168. The editio princeps has a comma after And, line 167, and heaven, line 168.

1.

THE DAEMON OF THE WORLD: PART 2.

Printed by Mr. Forman from a copy in his possession of "Queen Mab", corrected by Sh.e.l.ley's hand. See "The Sh.e.l.ley Library", pages 36-44, for a detailed history and description of this copy.

2.

Lines 436-438. Mr. Forman prints:-- Which from the exhaustless lore of human weal Draws on the virtuous mind, the thoughts that rise In time-destroying infiniteness, gift, etc.

Our text exhibits both variants--lore for 'store,' and Dawns for 'Draws'--found in Sh.e.l.ley's note on the corresponding pa.s.sage of "Queen Mab" (8 204-206). See editor's note on this pa.s.sage. Sh.e.l.ley's comma after infiniteness, line 438, is omitted as tending to obscure the construction.

1.

ALASTOR; OR THE SPIRIT OF SOLITUDE.

"Preface". For the concluding paragraph see editor's note on "The Daemon of the World": Part 1.

2.

Conducts, O Sleep, to thy, etc. (line 219.) The Sh.e.l.ley texts, 1816, 1824, 1839, have Conduct here, which Forman and Dowden retain. The suggestion that Sh.e.l.ley may have written 'death's blue vaults' (line 216) need not, in the face of 'the dark gate of death' (line 211), be seriously considered; Conduct must, therefore, be regarded as a fault in grammar. That Sh.e.l.ley actually wrote Conduct is not impossible, for his grammar is not seldom faulty (see, for instance, "Revolt of Islam, Dedication", line 60); but it is most improbable that he would have committed a solecism so striking both to eye and ear.

Rossetti and Woodberry print Conducts, etc. The final s is often a vanishing quant.i.ty in Sh.e.l.ley's ma.n.u.scripts. Or perhaps the compositor's hand was misled by his eye, which may have dropped on the words, Conduct to thy, etc., seven lines above.

3.

Of wave ruining on wave, etc. (line 327.) For ruining the text of "Poetical Works", 1839, both editions, has running--an overlooked misprint, surely, rather than a conjectural emendation. For an example of ruining as an intransitive (= 'falling in ruins,' or, simply, 'falling in streams') see "Paradise Lost", 6 867-869:-- h.e.l.l heard th' insufferable noise, h.e.l.l saw Heav'n ruining from Heav'n, and would have fled Affrighted, etc.

Ruining, in the sense of 'streaming,' 'trailing,' occurs in Coleridge's "Melancholy: a Fragment" (Sibylline Leaves, 1817, page 262):-- Where ruining ivies propped the ruins steep-- "Melancholy" first appeared in "The Morning Post", December 7, 1797, where, through an error identical with that here a.s.sumed in the text of 1839, running appears in place of ruining--the word intended, and doubtless written, by Coleridge.

4.

Line 349. With Mr. Stopford Brooke, the editor subst.i.tutes here a colon for the full stop which, in editions 1816, 1824, and 1839, follows ocean. Forman and Dowden retain the full stop; Rossetti and Woodberry subst.i.tute a semicolon.

5.

And nought but gnarled roots of ancient pines Branchless and blasted, clenched with grasping roots The unwilling soil. (lines 530-532.) Editions 1816, 1824, and 1839 have roots (line 530)--a palpable misprint, the probable origin of which may be seen in the line which follows. Rossetti conjectures trunks, but stumps or stems may have been Sh.e.l.ley's word.

6.

Lines 543-548. This somewhat involved pa.s.sage is here reprinted exactly as it stands in the editio princeps, save for the comma after and, line 546, first introduced by Dowden, 1890. The construction and meaning are fully discussed by Forman ("Poetical Works" of Sh.e.l.ley, edition 1876, volume 1 pages 39, 40), Stopford Brooke ("Poems of Sh.e.l.ley", G. T. S., 1880, page 323), Dobell ("Alastor", etc., Facsimile Reprint, 2nd edition 1887, pages 22-27), and Woodberry ("Complete P. W. of Sh.e.l.ley", 1893, volume 1 page 413).

1.

THE REVOLT OF ISLAM.

The revised text (1818) of this poem is given here, as being that which Sh.e.l.ley actually published. In order to reconvert the text of "The Revolt of Islam" into that of "Laon and Cythna", the reader must make the following alterations in the text. At the end of the "Preface"

add:--

'In the personal conduct of my Hero and Heroine, there is one circ.u.mstance which was intended to startle the reader from the trance of ordinary life. It was my object to break through the crust of those outworn opinions on which established inst.i.tutions depend. I have appealed therefore to the most universal of all feelings, and have endeavoured to strengthen the moral sense, by forbidding it to waste its energies in seeking to avoid actions which are only crimes of convention. It is because there is so great a mult.i.tude of artificial vices that there are so few real virtues. Those feelings alone which are benevolent or malevolent, are essentially good or bad. The circ.u.mstance of which I speak was introduced, however, merely to accustom men to that charity and toleration which the exhibition of a practice widely differing from their own has a tendency to promote. (The sentiments connected with and characteristic of this circ.u.mstance have no personal reference to the Writer.--[Sh.e.l.ley's Note.]) Nothing indeed can be more mischievous than many actions, innocent in themselves, which might bring down upon individuals the bigoted contempt and rage of the mult.i.tude.'

2 21 1: I had a little sister whose fair eyes

2 25 2: To love in human life, this sister sweet,