TO EMILIA VIVIANI

I

MADONNA, wherefore hast thou sent to me

Sweet-basil and mignonette ?
Embleming love and health, which never yet
In the same wreath might be.

Alas, and they are wet!
Is it with thy kisses or thy tears ?

For never rain or dew

Such fragrance drew
From plant or flower - the very doubt

doubt endears My sadness ever new, The sighs I breathe, the tears I shed for thee.

II

Send the stars light, but send not love to me,

In whom love ever made
Health like a heap of embers soon to fade.

TO

O MIGHTY mind, in whose deep stream this age
Shakes like a reed in the unheeding storm,
Why dost thou curb not thine own sacred rage ?

To Emilia Viviani. Published i. by Mrs. Shelley, 1824; ii. 1 by Garnett, 1862; ii. 2, 3 by Forman, 1876; dated 1821.

To- - || Fragment of an Address to Byron, Forman. Published by Garnett, 1862, dated 1818.

SONNET TO BYRON

[I am afraid these verses will not please you, but]

may share

IF I esteemed you less, Envy would kill

Pleasure, and leave to Wonder and Despair
The ministration of the thoughts that fill

The mind which, like a worm whose life
A portion of the unapproachable,

Marks your creations rise as fast and fair
As perfect worlds at the Creator's will.

But such is my regard that nor your power
To soar above the heights where others [climb],

Nor fame, that shadow of the unborn hour

Cast from the envious future on the time, Move one regret for his unhonored name Who dares these words: the worm beneath the

sod May lift itself in homage of the God. Sonnet to Byron. Published, in part, by Medwin, 1832, 1847, and recomposed by aid of Boscombe MS. by Rossetti, 1870, dated 1821.

1 you, Rossetti || him, Medwin, 1832; thee, Medwin, 1847. 2, 3 Medwin 1832, 1847.

4 Rossetti || My soul which as a worm may haply share, Medwin, 1832; My soul which even as a worm may share, Medwin, 1847. 5 Medwin, 1832, 1847. 6 your, Rossetti || his, Medwin, 1832; thy, Medwin, 1847. 7 Medwin, 1832, 1847. 8-11 Rossetti ||

But not the blessings of thy happier lot,
Nor thy well-won prosperity, and fame.

Medwin, 1847. 12-14 Medwin, 1847.

A LOST LEADER

My head is wild with weeping for a grief

Which is the shadow of a gentle mind. I walk into the air (but no relief

To seek, — or haply, if I sought, to find ; It came unsought); – to wonder that a chief

Among men's spirits should be cold and blind.

ON KEATS

WHO DESIRED THAT ON HIS TOMB SHOULD BE IN

SCRIBED

66 HERE lieth One whose name was writ on water !
But ere the breath that could erase it blew,
Death, in remorse for that fell slaughter,
Death, the immortalizing winter, flew
Athwart the stream, and time's printless torrent

grew
A scroll of crystal, blazoning the name
Of Adonais !

TO

For me, my friend, if not that tears did tremble

In my faint eyes, and that my heart beat fast

A Lost Leader. Dowden. Published, by Rossetti, 1870, dated 1818.

On Keats. Published by Mrs. Shelley, 18391, dated 1821. 5 printless, Boscombe MS. || monthless, Mrs. Shelley, 18391.

To || To a Friend leaving Prison, Forman. To one freed from Prison, Dowden. Published by Garnett, 1862, dated 1817.

With feelings which make rapture pain resemble,

Yet, from thy voice that falsehood starts aghast,
I thank thee - let the tyrant keep
His chains and tears, yea let him weep
With rage to see thee freshly risen,
Like strength from slumber, from the prison,

In which he vainly hoped the soul to bind Which on the chains must prey that fetter human

kind.

MILTON'S SPIRIT

I DREAMED that Milton's spirit rose, and took

From life's green tree his Uranian lute; And from his touch sweet thunder flowed, and

shook All human things built in contempt of man, — And sanguine thrones and impious altars quaked, Prisons and citadels.

“ MIGHTY EAGLE”

MIGHTY eagle ! thou that soarest
O'er the misty mountain forest,

And amid the light of morning
Like a cloud of glory hiest,
And when night descends defiest

The embattled tempests' warning ! Milton's Spirit, Forman. Published, by Rossetti, 1870, dated 1820.

“Mighty Eagle" || “Mighty Eagle :” supposed to be addressed to William Godwin, Forman. Published by Forman, 1882, dated 1817. LAUREL

“ WHAT art thou, presumptuous, who profanest

The wreath to mighty poets only due, Even whilst like a forgotten moon thou wanest ? Touch not those leaves which for the eternal

few Who wander o'er the paradise of fame,

In sacred dedication ever grew : One of the crowd thou art without a name. “Ah, friend, 'tis the false laurel that I wear.

Bright though it seem, it is not the same As that which bound Milton's immortal hair:

Its dew is poison ; and the hopes that quicken Under its chilling shade, though seeming fair, Are flowers which die almost before they

sicken."

6 ONCE MORE DESCEND'

ONCE more descend The shadows of my soul upon mankind ; For, to those hearts with which they never blend, Thoughts are but shadows which the flashing

mind From the swift clouds, which track its flight of fire, Casts on the gloomy world it leaves behind.

Laurel || False Laurels and True, Forman. False Laurels, Dowden. Published by Mrs. Shelley, 18391, dated 1821.

“Once more descend" || Supposed to be a fragment of Otho, Forman. Published by Garnett, 1862, dated 1817.