The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind, If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind? AN ODE WRITTEN OCTOBER, 1819, BEFORE THE SPANIARDS HAD RECOVERED THEIR LIBERTY Published with Prometheus Unbound, 1820. Mrs. Shelley's note exhibits the state of Shelley's mind in his efforts to arouse and agitate among the people: 'Shelley loved the people, and respected them as often more virtuous, as always more suffering, and, therefore, more deserving of sympathy, than the great. He believed that a clash between the two classes of society was inevitable, and he eagerly ranged himself on the people's side. He had an idea of publishing a series of poems adapted expressly to commemorate their circumstances and wrongs he wrote a few, but in those days of prosecution for libel they could not be printed. They are not among the best of his productions, a writer being always shackled when he endeavors to write down to the comprehension of those who could not understand or feel a highly imaginative style; but they show his earnestness, and with what heartfelt compassion he went home to the direct point of injury that oppression is detestable, as being the parent of starvation, nakedness, and ignorance. Besides these outpourings of compassion and indignation, he had meant to adorn the cause he loved with loftier poetry of glory and triumph-such is the scope of the Ode to the Assertors of Liberty. He sketched also a new version of our national anthem, as addressed to Liberty.' ARISE, arise, arise ! There is blood on the earth that denies ye bread! Be your wounds like eyes To weep for the dead, the dead, the dead. What other grief were it just to pay? Your sons, your wives, your brethren, were they ! Who said they were slain on the battleday? Awaken, awaken, awaken! The slave and the tyrant are twin-born foes. Be the cold chains shaken To the dust where your kindred repose, repose. girls, Tazee be tazee no be no,' was given to Miss Sophia Stacey in 1819. Several versions of it exist. Browning's account of deciphering one of them is interesting: he writes to Hunt, October 6, 1857 Is it not strange that I should have transcribed for the first time last night the Indian Serenade that, together with some verses of Metastasio, accompanied that book? [the volume of Keats found in Shelley's pocket and burned with his body] that I should have been reserved to tell the present possessor of them, to whom they were given by Captain Roberts, what the poem was, and that it had been published? It is preserved religiously ; but the characters are all but illegible, and I needed a good magnifying-glass to be quite sure of such of them as remain. The end is that I have rescued three or four variations in the reading of that divine little poem as one reads it, at least, in the Posthumous Poems.' It was published by Hunt, The Liberal, 1822. I I ARISE from dreams of thee Hath led me who knows how? II The wandering airs, they faint III Oh, lift me from the grass! TO SOPHIA Mrs. Shelley describes the lady to whom these lines are addressed, in a letter to Mrs. Gisborne, December 1, 1819: 'There are some ladies come to this house who knew Shelley's family the younger one was entousiasmée to see him. . . The younger lady was a ward of one of Shelley's uncles. She is lively and unaffected. She sings well for an English débutante and, if she would learn the scales, would sing exceedingly well, for she has a sweet voice.' Miss Sophia Stacey was a ward of Mr. Parker, of Bath, an uncle by marriage of Shelley. The poem was published by Rossetti, 1870. I THOU art fair, and few are fairer Of the nymphs of earth or ocean; They are robes that fit the wearer — Those soft limbs of thine, whose motion Ever falls and shifts and glances As the life within them dances. II Thy deep eyes, a double Planet, Gaze the wisest into madness With soft clear fire; the winds that fan it Are those thoughts of tender gladness Which, like zephyrs on the billow, Make thy gentle soul their pillow. III If, whatever face thou paintest In those eyes, grows pale with pleasure, If the fainting soul is faintest When it hears thy harp's wild measure, Wonder not that when thou speakest Of the weak my heart is weakest. IV As dew beneath the wind of morning, As the sea which whirlwinds waken, As the birds at thunder's warning, As aught mute yet deeply shaken, As one who feels an unseen spirit, Is my heart when thine is near it. LOVE'S PHILOSOPHY Published by Hunt, The Indicator, 1819. I THE fountains mingle with the river, II See the mountains kiss high heaven, And the moonbeams kiss the sea: What are all these kissings worth, If thou kiss not me? POEMS WRITTEN IN 1820 Mrs. Shelley gives in brief passages the account of the various removals of this year, and of Shelley's general state: There was something in Florence that disagreed excessively with his health, and he suffered far more pain than usual; so much so that we left it sooner than we intended, and removed to Pisa, where we had some friends, and, above all, where we could consult the celebrated Vaccà, as to the cause of Shelley's sufferings. He, like every other medical man, could only guess at that, and gave little hope of immediate relief; he enjoined him to abstain from all physicians and medicine, and to leave his complaint to nature. As he had vainly consulted medical men of the highest repute in England, he was easily persuaded to adopt this advice. Pain and ill-health followed him to the end, but the 'We spent the summer at the baths of San Giuliano, four miles from Pisa. These baths were of great use to Shelley in soothing his nervous irritability. We made several excursions in the neighborhood. The country around is fertile, and diversified and rendered picturesque by ranges of near hills and more distant mountains. The peasantry are a handsome, intelligent race, and there was a gladsome sunny heaven spread over us, that rendered home and every scene we visited cheerful and bright. 'We then removed to Pisa, and took up our abode there for the winter. The extreme mildness of the climate suited Shelley, and his solitude was enlivened by an intercourse with |