UC-NRLF B 3 S7T MSb BEUKEIEY LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA •3' ^ (J EPIPSYCHIDION Price, 2s. [Mrs. Sbelley classes EpipsychicUon among the poems -wi-itteu in 1821 : in a letter to Leigh Hunt dated the 29th of December, 1820, and of which a portion is iiublished in Hunt's Correspondence (Vol I, p. 160), she seems to refer to it as being already -mitten ; but only seems, for the context of the letter, -which is extant, shews that there is no reference to Shelley or Epipsyclddion in the passage wherein those names were inserted by Thornton Hunt. Whatever be the date of completion, the poem was sent to Mr. OUier, ■to be published, in a letter dated the 16th of February, 1821, printed in the Shelley Memorials (pp. 152-3), in which Shelley says, "The longer poem, I desire, should not be considered as my o-n-n ; indeed, in a certain sense, it is the production of a portion of me already dead ; and in this sense the advert- isement is no fiction. It is to be published simply for the esoteric few ; and I make its author a secret, to avoid the malignity of those who tm-n sweet food into poison; transforming all they touch into the corruption of then- own natures. My wish with respect to it is that it should be printed immediately in the simj^lest form, and merely one hundred copies : those who are capable of judging and feeling rightly with respect to a composition of so abstruse a nature, certainly do not arrive at that number — among those, at least, who would ever be excited to read an obscure and anonj-mous produc- tion ; and it would give me no pleasure that the vulgar should read it. If you have any bookselling reason against publishing so small a number as a hundred, merely distribute copies among those to whom you think the poetry would afford any pleasure." It was printed as an octavo pamphlet, sewed, without wrapper, consisting of fly-title Epipsychidion — Price, 2s., title-page (as opposite), 1 page of preface called "Advertisement" -with stanza from Dante at back, and text pp. 7 to 31. There is an imprint at the back of the fly-title, as follows : — "London. Printed by S. & R. Bentley Dorset-Street, Salisbury-Square." The name of the lady, omitted from the title-page, was Vi-\-iani, — the convent that of St. Anne, Pisa. I have not been able to ascertain that there is in existence any finished MS. of Epipsychidion. — H. B. F.] EPIPSYCHIDION VEESES ADDEESSED TO THE NOBLE AND UNFOETUNATE LADY EMILIA V NOW IMPRISONED IN THE CONVENT OF L'auima amante si slancia fuori del creato, e si crea nel infinito un Moiido tutto per essa, diverso assai da questo oscuro e pauroso baratro. Her own words. LONDON C AND J OLLIEE VEEE STEEET BOND STEEET MDCCCXXI. My Song, I fear that thou wilt find hut few Wlio fitly shall conceive thy reasoning, Of such hard matter dost thou entertain ; Wlience, if hy misadventure, chance should hrii Thee to base company, (as chance may do) Quite unaware of what thou dost contain, I prithee, comfort thy sweet self again, My last delight ! tell them that they are dull, And bid them own that thou art beautiful. ADYEKTISEMENT. [by SHELLEY.] The Writer of the following Lines died at Florence, as lie was preparing for a voyage to one of the wildest of the Sporades, which he had bought, and where he had fitted up the ruins of an old building, and where it was his hope to have realised a scheme of life, suited perhaps to that happier and better world of which he is now an inhabit- ant, but hardly practicable in this. His life was singu- lar ; less on account of the romantic vicissitudes which diversified it, than the ideal tinge which it received from his own character and feelings. The present Poem, like the Vita Nuova of Dante, is sufficiently intelligible to a certain class of readers without a matter-of-fact history of the circumstances to which it relates ; and to a certain other class it must ever remain incom- prehensible, from a defect of a common organ of perception for the ideas of which it treats. Not but that, gran verr/ogna sarehbc a colul, che rimasse cosa sotto vesfe di figura, di colore rettorico : e domandato non sapesse dcnudare U sue parole da cotal veste, in guisa che avessero verace intendi- mcnto.'^ The present poem appears to have been intended by the Writer as the dedication to some longer one. The stanza on the opposite^ P^gs is almost a literal translation from ^ Mr. Eossetti translates this quo- ed the meaning of every hne in this tation from Dante thus : " Great were most wondi-ous poem, the main charge his shame who should rhyme any- against which is that there are some thing under a garb of metaphor or few personal allusions that it is im- rhetorical colour, and then, being possible to expound with certainty in asked, should be incapable of stripping his absence. his words of this garb so that they ^ From the word opposite being em- might have a veritable meaning." ployed here in Shelley's edition, it may No doubt Shelley could have expound- be fairly assumed that, although the 786 6 ADVERTISEMENT. Dante's famous Canzone Vol, dC intendendo, U terzo del movete, d'C. The presumptuous application of the concluding lines to his own composition will raise a smile at the expense of my unfortunate friend : be it a smile not of contempt, but pity.i S. stanza was printed on the back of the "advertisement," he meant it to be on the back of the title-page ; and I accordingly give it there, — as indeed, Mrs. Shelley, in her first edition of 1839, gave it at the back of a fly-title, and facing the "advertisement." Inher second edition of 1839 it preceded the "advertisement," on the same page ; and the wording was curiously changed to on the above page. Mr. Eossetti also prints the stanza above the " ad- vertisement," on the same page, but makes a still more curious variation of Shelley's text by reading on the pre- ceding page, instead of on the opposite page. ^ AVriting to Mr. John Gisborne from Pisa on the 22nd of October, 1821, Shelley said {Essays, tfcc, Vol. II., p. 333-4), "The Epipsychidion is a mystery ; as to real flesh and blood, you know I do not deal in those articles ; you might as well go to a gin shop for a leg of mutton, as exjject anything human or earthly from me. I desired Oilier not to circulate this j)iece except to the (TweTol, and even they, it seems, are inclined to approximate me to the circle of a servant girl and her sweet- heart. But I intend to write a sym- posium of my own to set all this right." EPIPSYCHIDION^ Sweet Spirit ! Sister of tliat orphan one, Wliose empire is tlie name tliou weepest on,^ In my heart's temple I suspend to thee These votive wreaths of withered memory. Poor captive bird ! who, from thy narrow cage, Pourest such music, that it might assuage The rugged hearts of those who prisoned thee, Were they not deaf to all sweet melody ; This song shall be thy rose : its petals pale Are dead, indeed, my adored Nightingale ! But soft and fragrant is the faded blossom. And it has no thorn left to wound thy bosom. ^ The meaning of this title has been much discussed. Without pretend- ing to any classical authority, I may note that I cannot discern any signifi- cation beyond the simple one, " a little poem about the soul." ■^ There ought to be no need of explanation here ; but Mr. Rossetti says "the couplet has often been cited as unintelligible," — owing, proba- blj-, to that fruitful source of mystifi- cation and corruption, the foot-note wherein Professor Craik {English Lite- rature and Language, Vol. II., pp. 498 — 500) lays down, among other absurdities, that " it is difficult not to susiject something WTong" in this " strange commencement," as he calls it. There can be no reasonable doubt that Mr. Garnett's explanation {Relics of SIicllc;/, p. 97) is right : " The orphan one, Emilia's spiritual sister, is Mary Shelley, whose mother died, in giving her birth ; the name is Shelley's own." When Mr. Rossetti's edition was reviewed in T/ie Times, occasion was given to Mr. Garnett to address to the editor of that Journal a disclaimer as to a motive which the reviewer ascribed to this very simple explanation. Mr. Garnett's letter set- tles the question, if it was not settled before : he saj^s — "I proposed, or rather stated, my interpretation simply be- cause I knew it to be right. Its cor- rectness is shown by the circumstance that Emilia Viviani and Mrs. Shelley were accustomed to address each other as 'sisters.' Many letters from the former to the latter are preserved, in all of which Mrs. Shelley is addressed as ' Cara Sorella.' " EPIPSYCHIDIOX. High, spirit- winged Heart ! who dost for ever Beat thine unfeeling bars with vain endeavour, TilP those bright phnnes of thought, in which arrayed It over-soared this- low and worldly shade, le Lie shattered ; and thy panting, wounded breast Stains with dear blood its unmaternal nest ! I weep vain tears : blood would less bitter be. Yet poured forth gladlier, could it profit thee. 20 Seraph of Heaven ! too gentle to be human. Veiling beneath that radiant form of AVoman All that is insupportable in thee Of light, and love, and immortality ! Sweet Benediction in the eternal Curse ! 25 Veiled Glory of this lampless Universe ! Thou ]\Ioon beyond the clouds ! Thou living Form Among the Dead ! Thou Star above the Storm ! Thou Wonder, and thou Beauty, and thou Terror ! Thou Harmony of Nature's art ! Thou Mirror 30 In whom, as in the splendour of the Sun, All shapes look glorious which thou gazest on ! Aye,^ even the dim words which obscure thee now Flash, lightning-like, with unaccustomed glow ; I pray thee that thou blot from this sad song sr. All of its much mortality and wrong. With those clear drops, wliicli start like sacred dew From the twin lights thy sweet soul darkens through. Weeping, till sorrow becomes ecstasy : Then smile on it, so that it may not die. 40 I never thought before my death to see Youth's vision thus made perfect. Emily, I love thee; though the world Ijy no thin name 1 In Shelley's edition, 'Till. habitually sjielt the word with a - In Shelley's edition, Ay ; but he final e. KPIPSYflHlDION. 9 Will hide that love, from its unvalued shame. Would we two had been twins of the same mother ! 45 Or, that the name my heart lent to another Could be a sister's bond for her and thee, Blending two beams of one eternity ! Yet were one lawful and the other true. These names, though dear, could paint not, as is due, How beyond refuge I am thine. Ah me I am not thine : I am a part of thee. 51 Sweet Lamp ! my moth-like Muse has burnt its wings ; Or, like a dying swan who soars and sings. Young Love should teach Time, in his own grey style. All that thou art. Art thou not void of guile, 56 A lovely soul formed to be blest and' bless? A well of sealed and secret happiness, Whose waters like blithe light and music are, Vanquishing dissonance and gloom ? A Star eo Which moves not in the moving Heavens, alone ? A smile amid dark frowns ? a gentle tone Amid rude voices ? a belovM light ? A Solitude, a Eefuge, a Delight ? A Lute, which those whom love has taught to play 60 Make music on, to soothe the roughest day And lull fond grief asleep ? a buried treasure ? A cradle of young thoughts of wingless pleasure ? A violet-shrouded grave of Woe ? — I measure The world of fancies, seeking one like thee, 70 And find — alas ! mine own infirmity. She met me, Stranger, upon life's rough way. And lured me towards sweet Death ; as Night by Day, Winter by Spring, or Sorrow by swift Hope, Led into light, life, peace. An antelope, 75 In the suspended impulse of its lightness, p. 2 10 EPIPSYCHIDIO^^. Were less setherially^ light : tlie brightness Of her clivinest presence trembles through Her limljs, as underneath a cloud of dew Embodied in the windless Heaven of June si Amid the splendour-winged stars, the Moon Burns, inextinguishably beautiful : And from her lips, as from a hyacinth full Of honey-dew, a liquid murmur drops, Killing the sense with passion ; sweet as stops st Of planetary music heard in trance. In her mild lights the starry spirits dance. The sun-beams of those wells which ever leap Under the lightnings of the soul— too deep For the brief fathom-line of thought or sense. 90 The glory of her being, issuing thence. Stains the dead, blank, cold air with a warm sliade Of unentangied intermixture, made By Love, of liglit and motion : one intense Diffusion, one serene Omnipresence, 95 "Wliose flowing outlines mingle in their ilowing Around her cheeks and utmost fingers glowing With the unintermitted blood, which there Quivers, (as in a fleece of snow-like air The crimson pulse of living morning quiver,) ^ 100 Continuously prolonged, and ending never. Till tliey are lost, and in that Beauty furled Which penetrates and clasps and fills the world; Scarce visible from extreme loveliness. ^ In Shelley's edition, ethereally. after a word wliich is not generally fol- ? So in Shelley's and all editions up lowed by that mood. See my note on to Mr. Rossetti's, wherein the line is when the moon. . . jmusc, in Zaon and changed to— Ci/thna (Vol. I., p. 224). Notwith- The crimson pulse of living Jlorn may standing the " horrid ^^olation of cimver, grammar," as Mr. Rossetti calls it, and it is suggested in a note that the the magic of Shelley's euphony seems words morn may " might easilj" be to me here, as in that case, to vanish misread and misprinted as " 9Worn my. with his editor's rectification. My No doubt they might : yet I incline to brother, Alfred Forman, suggests that the supposition that the line stands in Shelley used pulse here as a plural, the first edition as Shelley meant it to with a jioetic instinct that, if that stand, and that this is another c;tse in was not the jilural, it ought to be. which he uses the subjunctive mood EriPSYCIIIDION. 11 Warm fragrance seems to fall from her light dress, 105 And her loose hair ; and where some heavy tress The air of her own speed has disentwined, The sweetness seems to satiate the faint wind ; And in the soul a wild odour is felt, Beyond the sense, like fiery dews that melt 110 Into the bosom of a frozen bud. See where she stands ! a mortal shape indued With love and life and light and deity. And motion which' may change but cannot die ; An image of some bright Eternity ; 115 A shadow of some golden dream; a Splendour Leaving the third sphere pilotless ; a tender Eeflection of^ the eternal Moon of Love Under whose motions life's dull billows move ; A Metaphor of Spring and Youth and Morning ; 120 A Vision like incarnate April, warning, With smiles and tears, Frost the Anatomy Into his summer grave. Ah, woe is me ! Wliat have I dared ? where am I lifted ? how Shall I descend, and perish not ? I know 12.5 That Love makes all things equal : I have heard By mine own heart this joyous truth averred : The spirit of the worm beneath the sod In love and worship, blends itself with God. Spouse ! Sister ! Angel ! Pilot of the Fate lao Whose course has been so starless ! too late Beloved ! too soon adored, by me ! For in the fields of immortality My spirit should at first have worshipped thine, A divine presence in a place divine; 135 ^ In Mrs. Shelley's editions we read reading of Shelley's edition, of, which for of. Mr. Rossetti reverts to the is of course right. 12 EPIPSYCHIDIOX. Or slioiild have moved Ijeside it on this earth, A shadow of that substance, from its birth ; But not as now :---! love thee ; yes, I feel That on the fountain of my heart a seal Is set, to keep its waters pure and bright 140 For thee, since in those tears thou hast delight. We — are we not formed, as notes of music are,^ For one another, though dissimilar ; Such difference without discord, as can make Those sweetest sounds, in which all spirits shake 145 As trembling leaves in a continuous air ? Thy wisdom speaks in me, and bids me dare Beacon the rocks on which high hearts are wreckt. I never was attached to that great sect, Whose doctrine is, that each one should select 150 •Out of the crowd a mistress or a friend. And all the rest, though fair and wise, commend To cold oblivion, though it is in^ the code Of modern morals, and the beaten road Which those poor slaves with weary footsteps tread, 155 Who travel to their home among the dead By the broad highway of the world, and. so With one chained friend, perhajis a jealous foe. The dreariest and the longest journey go. ^ This line is so pi-inted in all edi- the word in, correctly as he says ; but tions known to me. Mr. Rossetti says its incoiTectness was finally demon- "It seems to me almost a certainty strated when Mr. Garnett, having that the opening ' We ' in this line access to the same MS. books from ought to be cancelled." The in-e- which Mrs. Shelley got the fragment, gularity strikes me, on the contrary, printed the line with the word in as peculiarly beautiful and character- {Relics of Shelley, p. 3 i). Mr. Garnett istic. gives the words though 'tis in the code ; ^ The word In is in Shelley's edition but whether the abbre-sdation of it is and in those of Mrs. Shelley and Mr. his or Shelley's I have been unable to Rossetti. Professor Craik wanted it ■ ascertain. It seems to me that Pro- cut out {English Literature and Lan- fessor Craik's proposal had no claim ffuage, Vol II., p. 499), and cited in whatever to be entertained : the doc- support of his view the fragment at trine referred to is not the code of page 319 of the second edition of 1839, modern morals, but only a part" of wherein the line is printed without it, and therefore in the code. EPIPSYCHIDION. 1 3 True Love in this differs from gold and clay, loo That to divide is not to take away. Love is like understanding, that grows bright. Gazing on many truths ; 'tis like thy light, Imagination ! which from earth and sky, And from the depths of human phantasy, i65 As from a thousand prisms and mirrors, fills The Universe with glorious beams, and kills Error, the worm, with many a sun-like arrow Of its reverberated lightning. Narrow The heart that loves, the brain that contemplates, 170 The life that wears, the spirit that creates One object, and one form, and builds thereby A sepulchre for its eternity. Mind from its object differs most in this : Evil from good; misery from happiness ; 175 The baser from the nobler ; the impure And frail, from what is clear and must endure. If you divide suffering and dross, you may Diminisli till it is consumed away; If you divide pleasure and love and thought, 18) Each part exceeds the whole ; and we know not How much, while any yet remains unshared. Of pleasure may be gained, of sorrow spared : This truth is that deep well, whence sages draw The unenvied light of hope ; the eternal law i85 By which those live, to whom this world of life Is as a garden ravaged, and whose strife Tills for the promise of a later birth The wilderness of this Elysian earth. There was a Being whom my spirit oft 100 Met on its visiontxl wanderings, far aloft, 14 EPIPSYCHIDION. In the clear golden prime of my youth's dawn, Upon the fairy isles of sunny lawn, Amid the enchanted mountains, and the caves Of divine sleej), and on the air-like waves Of wonder-level dream, whose tremulous floor Paved her light steps ; — on an imagined shore, Under the grey beak of some promontory She met me, robed in such exceeding glory, • That I beheld her not. In solitudes Her voice came to me through the whispering woods. And from the fountains, and the odours deep Of flowers, which, like lips murmuring in their sleep Of the sweet kisses which had lulled them there, Breathed but of her to the enamoured air; And from the breezes whether low or loud. And from the rain of every passing cloud. And from the singing of tlie summer-birds, And from all sounds, all silence. In the words Of antique verse and high romance, — in form,i Sound, colour — in whatever checks that Storm Which with the shattered present chokes the past ; And in that best philosophy, whose taste Makes this cold common heU, our life, a doom As glorious as a fiery martyixlom ; Her Spirit was the harmony of truth. — Then, from the caverns of my dreamy youth I sprang, as one sandalled with plumes of fire. And towards the loadstar of my one desire, I flitted, like a dizzy moth, whose flight Is as a dead leafs in the owlet light. When it would seek in Hesper's setting sphere A radiant death, a fiery sepulchre, As if it were a lamp of earthly flame. — ' This comma is wanting in Shelley's edition. EPIPSYCHIDION. 15 But She, whom prayers or tears then could not tame, Past, like a God throned on a winged planet, 22c Whose burning plumes to tenfold swiftness fan it. Into the dreary cone of our life's shade ; And as a man with mighty loss dismayed, I would have followed, though the grave between 230 Yawned like a gulf whose spectres are unseen : When a voice said: — "0 Thou of hearts the weakest, " The phantom is beside thee whom thou seekest." Then I — "where ?" the world's echo answered "where !" And in that silence, and in my despair, 235 I questioned every tongueless wind that flew Over my tower of mourning, if it knew Whither 'twas fled, this soul out of my soul ; And murmured names and spells which have controul Over the sightless tyrants of our fate ; 240 But neither prayer nor verse could dissipate The night which closed on her ; nor uncreate That world within this Chaos, mine and me, Of which she was the veiled Divinity, The world I say of thoughts that worshipped her : 245 And therefore I went forth, with hope and fear And every gentle passion sick to death, deeding my course with expectation's breath. Into the wintry forest of our life ; And struggling through its error with vain strife, 250 And stumbling in my weakness and my haste, And half bewildered by new forms, I past Seeking among those untaught foresters If I could find one form resembling hers, In which she might have masked herself from me. 255 There, — One, whose voice was venomed melody Sate by a well, under blue night-shade bowers ; The breath of her false mouth was like faint flowers, Her touch was as electric poison, — flame 1 6 EPIPSYCIIIDION. Out of lier looks into my vitals came, 2G( And from her living clieeks and bosom flew A killing air, which pierced like honey-dew Into the core of my green heart, and lay Upon its leaves ; until, as hair grown grey O'er a young brow, they hid its unblown prime 201 With ruins of rmseasonable time. In many mortal forms I rashly sought The shadow of that idol of my thought. And some were fair — but beauty dies away : Others were wise — but honeyed words betray : 27 And One was true — oh ! why not true to me ? Then, as a hunted deer that could iiot flee, I turned upon my thoughts, and stood at bay. Wounded and weak and panting ; the cold day Trembled, for pity of my strife and pain. 27 Wlien, like a noon-day dawn, there shone again Deliverance. One stood on my path who seemed As like the glorious shape which I had dreamed, . As is the Moon, whose changes ever run Into themselves, to the eternal Sun ; 2s The cold chaste Moon, the Queen of Heaven's bright isle;^ Wlio makes all beautiful on which she smiles,^ That wandering shrine of soft yet icy flaine Which ever is transformed, yet still the same, And warms not but illumines. Young and fair a As the descended Spirit of that sphere, She hid me, as the Moon may hide the night From its own darkness, until all was bright Between the Heaven and Earth of my calm mind. And, as a cloud charioted by the wind, 2s She led me to a cave in that wild place, ^ lu Shelley's edition this line ends with a full-stop, doubtless a misprint. EPIPSYCHIDION. J. / And sate beside me, with her downward face Illumining my slumbers, like the Moon Waxing and waning o'er Endymion. And I was laid asleep, spirit and limb, 295 And all my being became bright or dim As the Moon's image in a summer sea. According as she smiled or frowned on me ; And there I lay, within a chaste cold bed : Alas, I then was nor alive nor dead: — 300 For at her silver voice came Death and Life, Unmindful each of their accustomed strife, JNIasked like twin babes, a sister and a brother. The wandering hopes of one abandoned mother. And through the cavern without wings they flew, sjs And cried " Away, he is not of our crew." I wept, and though it l)e a dream, I weep. AMiat storms then shook the ocean of my sleep, Blotting that Moon, whose pale and waning lips Then shrank as in the sickness of eclipse; — sic And how my soul was as a lampless sea, And who was then its Tempest ; and when She, The Planet of that hour, was quenched, what frost Crept o'er those waters, till^ from coast to coast The moving billows of my being fell si; Into a death of ice, immovable ^ ; — And then — what earthcpiakes made it gape and split, The white IVIoon smiling aU the while on it. These words conceal : — If not, each word would be The key of staunchless tears. Weep not for me ! 321 At length, into the obscure Forest came The A^ision I had sought through grief and shame. Athwart that wintry wilderness of thorns 1 In Shelley's edition, 'till. " In Shelley's edition, immoveahle. 18 EPirSYGHIDION. Flashed from her motion splendour like the Morn's, And from her presence life was radiated 325 Through the grey earth and branches bare and dead ; So that her way was paved, and roofed above With flowers as soft as thoughts of budding love ; And music from her respiration spread Like light, — all other sounds were penetrated 330 By the small, still, sweet spirit of that sound, So that the savage winds hung mute around ; And odours warm and fresh fell from her hair Dissolving the dull cold in the frore ^ air : Soft as an Incarnation of the Sun, 335 When light is changed to love, this glorious One Floated into the cavern where I lay, And called my Spirit, and the dreaming clay Was lifted by the thing that dreamed below As smoke by fire, and in her beauty's glow 340 I stood, and felt the dawn of my long night Was penetrating me with living light : I knew it was the Vision veiled from me So many years — that it was Emily. Twin^ Spheres of light who rule this passive Earth, This world of love, this mc ; and into birth 34!; Awaken all its fruits and flo^7ers, and dart Magnetic might into its central heart ; And lift its billows and its mists, and guide By everlasting laws, each wind and tide 350 To its fit cloud, and its appointed cave ; And lull its storms, each in the craggy grave Which was its cradle, luring to faint bowers The armies of the rain-bow-wino;ed showers ; 354 ^ In Shelley's and Mrs. Shelley's "Sain Shelley's edition; but thin editions we read froze ; but this is in Mis. Shelley's. an obvious printer's blunder. EPIPSYCHIDIOX. 19 And, as those married lights, which from the towers Of Heaven look forth and fold the wandering globe In liquid sleep and splendour, as a robe ; And all their many-mingled influence blend, If equal, yet unlike, to one sweet end ; — So ye, bright regents, with alternate sway sm Govern my sphere of being, night and day ! Thou, not disdaining even a borrowed might ; Thou, not eclipsing a remoter light ; And, through the shadow of the seasons three, From Spring to Autumn's sere maturity, ses Light it into the Winter of the tomb. Where it may ri]3en to a brighter bloom. Thou too, Comet beautiful and fierce, "VMio drew the heart of this frail Universe Towards thine own; till, wreckt in that convulsion, 370 Alternating attraction and repulsion. Thine went astray and that was rent in twain ; Oh, float into our azure heaven again! Be there love's folding-star at thy return ; Tlie living Sun will feed thee from its urn 375 Of golden fire ; the ]\Ioon will veil her horn In thy last smiles ; adoring Even and Morn Will worship thee with incense of calm breath And lights and shadows ; as the star of Death And Birth is worshipped by those sisters wild sso Called Hope and Fear — upon the heart are piled Their offerings, — of this sacrifice divine A World shall he the altar. Lady mine. Scorn not these flowers of thought, the fading birth Which from its heart of hearts that plant puts forth Whose fruit, made perfect by thy sunny eyes, sso Will Ije as of the trees of Paradise. 20 EPIPSYCniDIOX. The day is come, and thou wilt fly with me. To whatsoe'er of dull mortality Is mine, remain a vestal sister still ; To the intense, the deep, the im^Derishable, Not mine but me, henceforth be thou united Even as a bride, delighting and delighted. The hour is come: ---the destined Star has risen Wliicli shall descend upon a A^acant j)rison. The waUs are high, the gates are strong, thick set The sentinels — but true love never yet Was thus constrained : it overleaps all fence : Like lightning, with invisible violence Piercing its continents ; like Heaven's free breath, Which he who grasps can hold not ; liker Death, Who rides upon a thought, and makes his way Through temple, tower, and palace, and the array Of arms : more strength has Love than he or they ; For it^ can burst his charnel, and make free The limbs in chains, the heart in agony. The soul in dust and chaos. Emily, A ship is floating in the harbour now, A wind is hovering o'er the mountain's brow; There is a path on the sea's azure floor. No keel has ever ploughed that path before; The halcyons brood around the foamless isles ; The treacherous Ocean has forsworn its wiles ; The merry mariners are bold and free : Say, my heart's sister, wilt thou sail with me ? Our bark is as an albatross, whose nest 1 In Shelley's edition, it : in Mrs. called it at the opening of the Shelley's, he. Mr. Rossetti follows (line 398) ; and the sense intended tliis latter reading, and makes a fui-ther seems to me to be that Love can change by printing his in Italics. I burst Death's charnel, not its own think it is clearly right ; for Love is charnel as Mr. Rossetti renders it. EPIPSYCHIDIOX. 21 Is a far Eden of the purple East; And we between her wings will sit, while jSTight And Day, and Storm, and Calm, pursue their flight, Our ministers, along the boundless Sea, 420 Treading each other's heels, unheededly. It is an isle under Ionian skies, Beautiful as a wreck of Paradise, And, for the harbours are not safe and good, This land would have remained a solitude 425 But for some pastoral people native there, Wlio from the Elysian, clear, and golden air Draw the last spirit of the age of gold. Simple and spirited ; innocent and bold. The blue ^gean girds ^ this chosen home, 430 With ever-changing sound and light and foam. Kissing the sifted sands, and caverns hoar ; And all the winds wandering along the shore Undulate with the undulating tide : There are tliick woods where sylvan forms abide ; 435 And many a fountain, rivulet, and pond. As clear as elemental diamond, Or serene morning air ; and far beyond, The mossy tracks made by the goats and deer (Which the rough shepherd treads but once a year,) 440 Pierce into glades, caverns, and bowers, and halls Built round with ivy, which the waterfalls Illumining, with sound that never fails Accompany the noon-day nightingales ; And all the place is peopled with sweet airs ; 445 The light clear element which the isle wears Is heavy with the scent of lemon-flowers, Wliich floats like mist laden with unseen showers. ^ In Mrs. Shelley's first edition of r/irds was restored in the second edi- 1 839, ffirls was printed for fflrcls ; hut tion of the same year. 22 EPIPSYCHIDIOX. And falls upon the eye-lids like faint sleej) ; And from the moss violets and jonquils peep, And dart their arrowy odour through the brain 'Till you might faint with that delicious pain. And every motion, odour, beam, and tone, With that deep music is in unison : Which is a soul within the soul ---they seem Like echoes of an antenatal dream. — It is an isle 'twixt Heaven, Air, Earth, and Sea, Cradled, and hung in clear tranquillity ; Bright as that wandering Eden Lucifer, Washed by the soft blue Oceans of young air. It is a favoured place. Famine or Blight, Pestilence, War and Earthquake, never Light Upon its mountain-peaks ; blind vultures, they Sail onward far upon their fatal way : The winged storms, chaunting their thunder-psalm To other lands, leave azure chasms of calm Over tliis isle, or weep themselves in dew. From wliich its fields and woods ever renew Their gTeen and golden immortality. And from the sea there rise, and from the sky There fall, clear exhalations, soft and bright. Veil after veil, each hiding some deKght, Which Sun or Moon or zephyr draw aside, Till the isle's beauty, like a naked bride Glowing at once with love and loveliness, Blushes and trembles at its own excess : Yet, like a buried lamp, a Soul no less Burns in the heart of this delicious isle. An atom of th' Eternal, whose own smile Unfolds itseK, and may be felt,^ not seen O'er the grey rocks, blue waves, and forests green. Filling their bare and void interstices. — 1 This comma is wautuig in Slielley's edition. EPIPSYCHIDION. -lo But the chief marvel of the wilderness Is a lone dwelling, built by whom or how None of the rustic island-people know : 4S6 'Tis not a tower of strength, though with its height It overtops the woods ; but, for delight, Some wise and tender Ocean-King, ere crime Had been invented, in the world's young prime, Eeared it, a wonder of that simple time, 400 An envy of the isles, a pleasure-house Made sacred to his sister and his spouse. It scarce seems now a wreck of human art. But,, as it were Titanic ; in the heart Of Earth having assumed its form, then grown 495 Out of the mountains, from the living stone. Lifting itseK in caverns light and high : For all the antique and learnM imagery Has been erased, and in the place of it The ivy and the wild-vine interknit 500 The volumes of their many twining^ stems ; Parasite flowers iUume with dewy gems The lampless haUs, and when they fade, the sky Peeps through their winter-woof ^ of tracery With Moon-Hght patches, or star atoms keen, 505 Or fragments of the day's intense serene ; — Working mosaic on their Parian floors. And, day and night, aloof, from the high towers And terraces, the Earth and Ocean seem To sleep in one another's arms, and dream 510 1 These are two words in Shelley's ^ Mr. Eossetti " cannot helji sus- edition ; but in Mrs. Shelley's first pecting that Shelley wrote ' inter- edition of 1839 weread maJiy-iiwinift^, woof.'" I am satisfied that winter- as also in Mr. Rossetti's. It is a likely woof is right,— having reference to enough compound word for Shelley to the distinction between the tracery of use ; but the original reading is so per- bare stems seen against the sky in fectly safe and sound, that there can winter and the massing of the foliage be but little excuse for, or safety in, in flower-time, emendation. 24 EPIPSYCHIDION. Of waves, flowers, clouds, woods, rocks, and all that wi Eead in their smiles, and call reality. This isle and house are mine, and I have vowed Thee to be lady of the solitude. --- And I have fitted up some chambers there 51 Looking towards the golden Eastern air, And level with the living winds, which flow Like waves above the living waves below. --- I have sent books and music there, and all Those instruments with which high spirits call 521 The future from its cradle, and the past Out of its grave, and make the present last In thoughts and joys which sleep, but cannot die. Folded within their own eternity. Our simple life wants little, and true taste 52; Hires not the pale drudge Luxury, to waste The scene it would adorn, and therefore still, Nature with all her children, haunts the hill. The ring-dove, in the embowering ivy, yet Keeps up her love-lament, and the owls flit 53( Eound the evening tower, and the young stars glance Between the quick bats in their twilight dance ; The spotted deer bask in the fresh moon-light Before our gate, and the slow, silent night Is measured by the pants of their calm sleep. 53; Be this our home in life, and when years heap Their withered hours, like leaves, on our deca}'", Let us become the over-lianging day, The living soul of this Elysian isle. Conscious, inseparable, one. Meanwhile mc We two wiU rise, and sit, and walk together. Under the roof of blue Ionian weather. And wander in the meadows, or ascend EPIPSYCHIDIOX. 2o The mossy mountains, where th& blue heavens l)end With lightest winds, to touch their paramour ; 545 Or linger, where the pebble-paven shore, Under the quick, faint Idsses of the sea Trembles and sparkles as with ecstasy,^- -- Possessing and possest by all that is Within that calm circumference of bliss, 550 And by each other, till to love and live Be one: --- or, at the noontide hour, arrive Where some old cavern hoar seems yet to keep The moonlight of the expired night asleep. Through which the awakened day can never peep ; 555 A veil for our seclusion, close as Night's, Wliere secure sleep may kill thine innocent lights ; Sleep, the fresh dew of languid love, the rain Whose drops quench kisses till they burn again. And we will talk, until thought's melody 56o Become too sweet for utterance, and it die In words, to live again in looks, which dart With thrilling tone into the voiceless heart, Harmonizing silence without a sound. Our breath shall intermix, our bosoms bound, 565 And our veins beat together ; and our lips With other eloquence than words, eclipse The soul that burns between them, and the wells Which boil under our being's inmost cells, The fountains of our deepest life, shall be 570 Confused in passion's golden purity, As mountain-springs under the morning Sun. We shall become the same, we shall be one Spirit within two frames, oh ! wherefore two ? One passion in twin-hearts, which grows and grew, 575 In Shelley's edition, ecstacy, though the word is correctly spelt in line 39, p. 370. C 2 26 EPIPSYCHIDION. TilP like two meteors of expanding flame, Those spheres instinct with it become the same, Touch, mingle, are transfigured ; ever still Burning, yet ever inconsumable : In one another's substance finding food. Like flames too pure and light and unimbued To nourish their bright lives with baser prey, Wliich point to Heaven and cannot pass away : • One hope within two wills, one will beneath Two overshadowing minds, one life, one deatli. One Heaven, one Hell, one immortality. And one annDiilation. "Woe is me ! The winged words on which my soul would pierce Into the height of love's rare Universe, Are chains of lead around its flight of fire.--- I pant, I sink, I tremble, I expire ! Weak Verses, go, kneel at your Sovereign's feet. And say : — " We are the masters of thy slave ; " Wliat wouldest thou with us and ours and thine ?" Then call your sisters from Oblivion's cave, All singing loud : " Love's very pain is sweet, " But its reward is in the world divine "Which, if not here, it builds beyond the grave." So shall ye live when I am there. Then haste Over the hearts of men, until ye meet Marina, Vanna, Primus, ^ and the rest, And bid them love each other and be blest : And leave the troop which errs, and which reproves, And come and be my guest, --- for I am Love's. 1 In Shelley's edition, ^Till. Williams, to whom Shelley had been 2 Marina is a pet-name of Mrs. introduced shortly before sendmg off Shelley's : Vanna is the diminutive of EpipsycMdion to Mr. Oilier. I have Giovanna (Joan or Jane), and might, seen no explanation offered as to as Mr. Rossetti hints, refer to Mrs. Primus, and know of none. STUDIES FOR EPIPSYCHIDION. 27 STUDIES FOR EPIPSYCHIDION, AND CANCELLED PASSAGES.! Here, my dear friend, is a new book for you ; I have already dedicated two To other friends, one female and one male, — What you are, is a thing that I must veil ; What can this be to those who praise or rail ? 5 I never was attached to that great sect Whose doctrine is that each one should select Out of the world a mistress or a friend, And all the rest, though fair and wise, commend To cold oblivion — though 'tis in the code 10 Of modern morals, and the beaten road Which those poor slaves with weary footsteps tread Who travel to their home among the dead By the broad highway of the world — and so With one sad friend, and many a jealous foe, 15 The dreariest and the longest journey go. Eree love has this, different from gold and clay, That to divide is not to take away. Like ocean, which the o-eneral north wind breaks 1 Uuder the general title of "Frag- 34 to 39), dated 1820, and lines 142 ments," Mrs. Shelley added, in her to 174 as four cancelled passages of second edition of 1839, several exqui- Epipsychidion, aU dated 1821, and site " gleanings from Shelley's manu- being Nos. XXXII to XXXV of the script books and impers," the first of "•MiscellaneousFragments"(25p. 86 and which, headed " To ," consisted of 87). It seems convenient to number lines 1 to 37 and 62 to 91 of the ensu- the whole consecutively in this edi- ing group of Studies, &c. The rest tion, as an addendum to i5}5yw^cA/rf/o?i. were disentangled from the same The portions dated 1820 (lines 1 to 141) sources by Mr. Garnett ; and he print- are obviously approaches to that most ed the Avhole of them in his Relics of glorious poem, — metre and method Shelley, — lines 1 to 141 iinder the very being alike identical in these and that, appropriate title To His Genius, (pp. and indeed whole passages being also 28 STUDIES FOR EPII'SYCHIDIOX, Into ten thousand waves, and eacli one makes A mirror of the moon — like some gTeat glass. Which did distort whatever form might pass, Dashed into fragments Ly a playful cliild, Which then reflects its eyes and forehead mild ; Giving for one, which it could ne'er express, A thousand images of loveliness. If I were one whom the loud world held wise, I should disdain to quote authorities In commendation ^ of this kind of love : — Why there is first the God in heaven above. Who wrote a book called Nature, 'tis to be Eeviewed, I hear, in the next Quarterly; And Socrates, the Jesus Christ of Greece, And Jesus Christ himself did never cease To urge all living things to love each other. And to forgive their mutual faults, and smother The Devil of disunion in their souls. I love you ! — Listen, O embodied Eay Of the great Brightness ; I must pass away While you remain, and these light words must be 40 Tokens by which you may remember me. Start not — the thing you are is imbetrayed, If you are human, and if but the shade identical ; but there is a tone of gentle of Shdley ; but that fragment, and sarcasm which, appearing in these Ginevra, which also has some reference approaches, had wholly worked off in to Emilia Yiviani, are different in the progi-ess of the poet's mind towards method from these, and would not the fervent and most earnest raptm-es foUow so appropriately here as in of the ultimate poem. The fragment their place in the general distribution Fiordispina, doubtless, may also be of posthumous poems, regarded as a " preliminary though ^ So in Relics of Shdlei/ ; but in unconscious "study for ^^?;psj/c^irfion, Mrs. Shelley's edition we read /« the as Mr. Garnett says, at p. 29 of Relics suppmi; of &c. AND CANCELLED PASSAGES. 29 Of some sublimer spirit. ***** And as to friend or mistress, 'tis a form ; 45 Perhaps I wish you were one. Some declare You a familiar spirit, as you are; Others with a more inhuman Hint that, though not my wife, you are a woman, Wliat is the colour of your eyes and haii- ? 50 Wliy, if you were a lady, it were fair The world should know — but, as I am afraid. The Quarterly would bait you if betrayed ; And if, as it will be sport to see them stumble Over all sorts of scandals, hear them mumble 55 Their litany of curses — some guess right. And others swear you're a Hermaphrodite ; Like that sweet marble monster of both sexes, With looks so sweet and gentle that it vexes The very soul that the soul is gone oo Wliich lifted from her limbs the veil of stone. * * * * * It is a sweet thing, friendship, a dear balm, A happy and auspicious bird of calm. Which rides o'er life's ever tumultuous Ocean; A God that broods o'er chaos in commotion; 05 A flower which fresh as Lapland roses are. Lifts its bold head into the world's frore^ air. And blooms most radiantly when others die. Health, hope, and youth, and brief prosperity ; And with the light and odour of its bloom, 70 Shining within the dungeon and the tomb ; Whose coming is as light and music are ^ lu Relics of Shelley, the wonl h-ji-e frore is absolutely certain ; aud he is pure. Mr. Rossetti's emeudation states that Mr. Garuett concurs in it. 30' STUDIES FOE EPIPSYCHIDIOX,, 'Mid dissonance and gloom — a star "Wliich moves not 'mid the moving heavens alone — A smile among dark frowns — a gentle tone 75 Among rude voices, a beloved light, A solitude, a refuge, a delight. If I had but a friend ! \Vliy, I have three Even by my own confession ; there may be Some more, for what I know, for 'tis my mind ' so To call my friends all who are wise and kind, — And these. Heaven knows, at best are very few ; But none can ever be more dear than you. Why should they be ? ]\Iy mus'e has lost her wings. Or like a dying swan who soars and sings, ss I should describe you in heroic style, But -as it is, are you not void of guile ? A lovely soul, formed to be blest and bless : A well of sealed and secret happiness ; A lute which those whom Love has taught to j)lay 00 Make music on to cheer the roughest day. And enchant sadness till it sleeps ? To the oblivion whither I and thou. All loving and all lovely, hasten now With steps, ah, too unequal ! may we meet In one Elysium or one winding sheet ! If any shoiild be curious to discover \'\'liether to you I am a friend or lover. Let them read Shakspeare's sonnets, taking thence A whetstone for their dull intelligence That tears and will not cut, or let them guess How Diotima, the wise prophetess. Instructed the instructor, and why he AND CANCELLED PASSAGES. 31 Eebuked the infant spirit of melody On Agathon's sweet lips, whicli as he spoke 105 Was as the lovely star when morn has broke The roof of darkness, in the golden dawn. Half-hidden, and yet beautiful. I'll pawn My hopes of Heaven — you know what they are worth — That the presumptuous pedagogues of Earth, 110 If they could tell the riddle offered here Would scorn to be, or being to appear What now they seem and are — but let them chide, They have few pleasures in the world beside ; Perhaps we should be duU were we not chidden, 115 Paradise fruits are sweetest when forbidden. Polly can season Wisdom, Hatred Love. Farewell, if it can be to say farewell To those who — I will not, as most dedicators do, Assure myself and aU the world and you. That you are faultless — would to God they were Who taunt me with your love ! I then should wear These heavy chains of life with a light spirit. And would to God I were, or even as near it As you, dear heart. Alas ! what are we ? Clouds Driven by the wind in warring multitudes, Which rain into the bosom of the earth. And rise again, and in our death and birth. And through our restless life, take as from heaven Hues which are not our own, but wliich are cjiven, 32 STUDIES FOE EPIPSYCHIDION, And then withdrawn, and with inconstant glance Flash from the spirit to the countenance. There is a Power, a Love, a Joy, a God Which makes in mortal hearts its brief abode, A Pythian exhalation, which inspires Love, only love — a wind which o'er the wires Of the soul's giant harp- There is a mood which language faints beneath ; You feel it striding, as Almighty Death His bloodless steed. And what is that most brief and bright delight Which rushes through the touch and through the sight. And stands before the spirit's inmost throne, A naked Seraph ? None hath ever known. 145 Its birth is darkness, and its growth desire ; Untameable and fleet and fierce as fire, Not to be touched but to be felt alone. It fills the world with glory — and is gone. It floats with rainbow pinions o'er the stream Of life, which flows, like a dream Into the light of morning, to the grave As to an ocean. Wliat is that joy which serene infancy Perceives not, as the hours content them by,^ Each in a chain of blossoms, yet enjoys 1 Mr. Garnett sets the word sic them by" to mean "as the hours against this line, as if he regarded it content themselves along," — the curi- with suspicion ; but I do not doubt ous reflective verb content them ht) ba- its being as Shelley meant it. I take ing used as an equivalent for pass hy the expression "as the hours content conteiitedhj. AND CANCELLED PASSAGES. 33 The shapes of this new world, in giant toys Wrought by the busy ever new ? Eemembrance borrows Fancy's glass, to show These forms more sincere igo Than now they are, than then, perhaps, they were. When everything familiar seemed to be Wonderful, and the immortality Of this great world, which all tilings must inherit, Was felt as one with the awakening spirit, los Unconscious of itself, and of the strange Distinctions which in its proceeding change It feels and knows, and mourns as if each were A desolation. Were it not a sweet refuge, Emily, For all those exiles from the dull insane Who vex this pleasant world with pride and pain, For all that band of sister-spirits known To one another by a voiceless tone ? 14 DAY USE RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED LOAN DEPT. This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the date to which renewed. Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. nnP,G^62^^VV^ RrrcTD ms miRim^ IpjinsT^ ^cfi jjjWjtB^ilt semtonill SEP 1 1998 U. C. BERKELEY LD 21A-r>0m-3,'62 (C7097sl0)476B General Library UniversitT of California Berkeley o ;>D3 ■'