The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (ed. Hutchinson, 1914)/The Aziola

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

For other versions of this work, see The Aziola.

THE AZIOLA

[Published by Mrs. Shelley in The Keepsake, 1829.]

I'Do you not hear the Aziola cry?Methinks she must be nigh,'Said Mary, as we sateIn dusk, ere stars^[1] were lit, or candles brought;And I, who thought 5This Aziola was some tedious woman,Asked, 'Who is Aziola?' How elateI felt to know that it was nothing human,No mockery of myself to fear or^[2] hate:And Mary saw my soul, 10And laughed, and said, 'Disquiet yourself not;'Tis nothing but a little downy owl.'

IISad Aziola! many an eventideThy music I had heardBy wood and stream, meadow and mountain-side, 15And fields and marshes wide,—Such as nor voice, nor lute, nor wind, nor bird,The soul ever stirred:Unlike and far sweeter than them^[3] all.Sad Aziola! from that moment I 20Loved thee and thy sad cry.

 

1. The Aziola—4 ere stars] ere the stars edd. 1839.
2. 9 or] and edd. 1839.
3. 19 them] they edd. 1839.