The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (ed. Hutchinson, 1914)/The Aziola
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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 sate
In dusk, ere stars[1] were lit, or candles brought;
And I, who thought 5
This Aziola was some tedious woman,
Asked, 'Who is Aziola?' How elate
I felt to know that it was nothing human,
No mockery of myself to fear or[2] hate:
And Mary saw my soul, 10
And laughed, and said, 'Disquiet yourself not;
'Tis nothing but a little downy owl.'
'Do you not hear the Aziola cry?
Methinks she must be nigh,'
Said Mary, as we sate
In dusk, ere stars[1] were lit, or candles brought;
And I, who thought 5
This Aziola was some tedious woman,
Asked, 'Who is Aziola?' How elate
I felt to know that it was nothing human,
No mockery of myself to fear or[2] hate:
And Mary saw my soul, 10
And laughed, and said, 'Disquiet yourself not;
'Tis nothing but a little downy owl.'
II
Sad Aziola! many an eventide
Thy music I had heard
By wood and stream, meadow and mountain-side, 15
And 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 20
Loved thee and thy sad cry.
Sad Aziola! many an eventide
Thy music I had heard
By wood and stream, meadow and mountain-side, 15
And 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 20
Loved thee and thy sad cry.