NOTES:  6 unsealed B.; concealed 1824. 31 And the B.; The 1824. 69 Ocean’s B.; ocean 1824.

***

SONG OF PROSERPINE WHILE GATHERING FLOWERS ON THE PLAIN OF ENNA.

[Published by Mrs. Shelley, “Poetical Works”, 1839, 1st edition.  There is a fair draft amongst the Shelley manuscripts at the Bodleian Library.  See Mr. C.D.  Locock’s “Examination,” etc., 1903, page 24.]

1. 
Sacred Goddess, Mother Earth,
Thou from whose immortal bosom
Gods, and men, and beasts have birth,
Leaf and blade, and bud and blossom,
Breathe thine influence most divine 5
On thine own child, Proserpine.

2. 
If with mists of evening dew
Thou dost nourish these young flowers
Till they grow, in scent and hue,
Fairest children of the Hours, 10
Breathe thine influence most divine
On thine own child, Proserpine.

***

HYMN OF APOLLO.

[Published by Mrs. Shelley, “Posthumous Poems”, 1824.  There is a fair draft amongst the Shelley manuscripts at the Bodleian.  See Mr. C.D.  Locock’s “Examination”, etc., 1903, page 25.]

1. 
The sleepless Hours who watch me as I lie,
Curtained with star-inwoven tapestries
From the broad moonlight of the sky,
Fanning the busy dreams from my dim eyes,—­
Waken me when their Mother, the gray Dawn, 5
Tells them that dreams and that the moon is gone.

2. 
Then I arise, and climbing Heaven’s blue dome,
I walk over the mountains and the waves,
Leaving my robe upon the ocean foam;
My footsteps pave the clouds with fire; the caves 10
Are filled with my bright presence, and the air
Leaves the green Earth to my embraces bare.

3. 
The sunbeams are my shafts, with which I kill
Deceit, that loves the night and fears the day;
All men who do or even imagine ill 15
Fly me, and from the glory of my ray
Good minds and open actions take new might,
Until diminished by the reign of Night.

4. 
I feed the clouds, the rainbows and the flowers
With their aethereal colours; the moon’s globe 20
And the pure stars in their eternal bowers
Are cinctured with my power as with a robe;
Whatever lamps on Earth or Heaven may shine
Are portions of one power, which is mine.

5. 
I stand at noon upon the peak of Heaven, 25
Then with unwilling steps I wander down
Into the clouds of the Atlantic even;
For grief that I depart they weep and frown: 
What look is more delightful than the smile
With which I soothe them from the western isle? 30