That which from thee they should implore:—the weak
Alone kneel to thee, offering up the hearts 295
The strong have broken—yet where shall any seek
A garment whom thou clothest not? the darts
Of the keen winter storm, barbed with frost,
Which, from the everlasting snow that parts
The Alps from Heaven, pierce some traveller lost 300
In the wide waved interminable snow
Ungarmented, . . . . .
another fragment (a)
And the lips calm, the Spirit weeps within
Tears bitterer than the blood of agony 305
Trembling in drops on the discoloured skin
Of those who love their kind and therefore perish
In ghastly torture—a sweet medicine
Of peace and sleep are tears, and quietly
Them soothe from whose uplifted eyes they fall 310
But . . . . .
another fragment (b)
And in their dark and liquid moisture swam,
Like the dim orb of the eclipsèd moon;
Yet when the spirit flashed beneath, there came 315
The light from them, as when tears of delight
Double the western planet's serene flame.
ROSALIND AND HELEN
A MODERN ECLOGUE
[Begun at Marlow, 1817 (summer); already in the press, March, 1818; finished at the Baths of Lucca, August, 1818; published with other poems, as the title-piece of a slender volume, by C. & J. Ollier, London, 1819 (spring). See Bibliographical List. Sources of the text are (1) editio princeps, 1819; (2) Poetical Works, ed. Mrs. Shelley, 1839, edd. 1st and 2nd. A fragment of the text is amongst the Boscombe MSS. The poem is reprinted here from the editio princeps; verbal alterations are recorded in the footnotes, punctual in the Editor's Notes at the end of this volume.]
ADVERTISEMENT
The story of Rosalind and Helen is, undoubtedly, not an attempt in the highest style poetry. It is in no degree calculated to excite profound meditation; and if, by interesting the affections and amusing the imagination, it awakens a certain ideal melancholy favourable to the reception of more
