That even Fancy dares to claim :

Her presence had made weak and tame All passions, and I lived alone

In the time which is our own;

The past and future were forgot,
As they had been, and would be, not.
But soon, the guardian angel gone,
The dæmon reassumed his throne

In my faint heart. I dare not speak
My thoughts, but thus disturbed and weak
I sat and saw the vessels glide

Over the ocean bright and wide,
Like spirit-winged chariots sent
O'er some serenest element
For ministrations strange and far;
As if to some Elysian star
Sailed for drink to medicine

Such sweet and bitter pain as mine.
And the wind that winged their flight

From the land came fresh and light,
And the scent of wingèd flowers,

And the coolness of the hours

Of dew, and sweet warmth left by day,
Were scattered o'er the twinkling bay.
And the fisher with his lamp

And spear about the low rocks damp

Crept, and struck the fish which came
To worship the delusive flame.
Too happy they, whose pleasure sought
Extinguishes all sense and thought
Of the regret that pleasure leaves,
Destroying life alone, not peace!

LINES.

I.

We meet not as we parted,
We feel more than all may, see,

My bosom is heavy-hearted,

And thine full of doubt for me.

One moment has bound the free.

II.

That moment is gone for ever,

Like lightning that flashed and died, Like a snowflake upon the river, Like a sunbeam upon the tide, Which the dark shadows hide.

III.

That moment from time was singled

As the first of a life of pain, The cup of its joy was mingled -Delusion too sweet though vain! Too sweet to be mine again.

IV.

Sweet lips, could my heart have hidden
That its life was crushed by you,
Ye would not have then forbidden
The death which a heart so true
Sought in your briny dew.

V.

Methinks too little cost

For a moment so found, so lost!

THE ISLE.

THERE was a little lawny islet
By anemone and violet,

Like mosaic, paven :

And its roof was flowers and leaves
Which the summer's breath enweaves,

Where nor sun nor showers nor breeze

Pierce the pines and tallest trees,

Each a gem engraven.

Girt by many an azure wave

With which the clouds and mountains pave

A lake's blue chasm.

NOTE TO PAGE 81, LINE 1.

MR. BUXTON FORMAN prints this passage as it has always stood hitherto :

"Is it not strange, Isabel," said the youth,
"I never saw the sun? We will walk here
To-morrow; etc.

And adds, in a note,

"Although I cannot venture to interfere with the text without authority, I feel sure this line is very much corrupted, and that we should read

I never saw the sun-rise? We will wake here...

"As the passage stands, the youth's statement and proposal both seem preposterous, one by reason of improbability, the other by reason of tameness as leading up to the violent close. That two young people should take it into their heads to sleep out of doors to see the sun-rise would be an idea likely to commend itself to Shelley; and that he within whose being 'genius and death contended' should die in the cold night air is eminently probable."

The ingenious correction has been placed in the text of this edition, to avoid disturbing the pleasure of reading an exquisite poem. The conviction which every lover of Shelley must feel, that he could not have written nonsense, is almost as good as authority for the change.

A. D.