Dowden ascribes Shelley's mood to his bidding farewell to the house of the Boinvilles and his return to his own home. TEXT: i. 2 drank Forman, Dowden. 164 To Harriet. From the Esdaile MS. "It is the first of a few [five] short pieces added in Harriet's handwriting to the MS. collection of poems prepared for publication in the early days of the preceding year." Dowden, i. 413. 166 To Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin. Mrs. Shelley, 1824, entitled these lines To . . . and left them undated, but included them, 18391,2, in the poems of 1821. "Much light has been recently thrown upon the feelings which actuated Shelley at this critical period of his history by an interesting and unexpected discovery made during the preparation of this volume. It appears that a poem, hitherto referred to the date of 1821, was in fact written in June, 1814, and addressed to Mary." Garnett, Relics, pp. 160, 161. TEXT: i. 2 wert || did 1824. 3 fear || yearn Rossetti conj. iii. 2 shouldst Rossetti. 4 requitedst Rossetti. iv. 5 Their || Thy 1824. 6 feel 1824. 167 Mutability. TEXT: Mrs. Shelley, in the motto to chapter xlix. of Lodore, 1835, reads in the last two lines, can for may and Nor aught endure save for Nought may endure but. 168 On Death. This poem is in the Esdaile MSS. among those Shelley intended to issue in 1813 at the same time with Queen Mab, and was the only one preserved by him out of that collection; but he revised the text before publication in 1816. 169 A Summer Evening Churchyard. "The summer even ing that suggested to him the poem written in the churchyard of Lechlade occurred during his voyage up the Thames, in the autumn of 1815. He had been advised by a physician to live as much as possible in the open air; and a fortnight of a bright warm July was spent in tracing the Thames to its source." Mrs. Shelley's Note, 18391, iii. 16: “We passed two nights in a comfortable inn at Lechlade, and his lines A Summer Evening on the Thames at Lechlade were written then and there." Peacock, Works, iii. 423. 171 To Wordsworth. Shelley (from Bagni di Lucca) to Peacock, July 25, 1818: “I wish you had sent me some of the overflowing villainy of those apostates. What a [beastly and] pitiful wretch that Wordsworth! That such a man should be a poet! I can compare him with no one but Simonides, that flatterer of the Sicilian tyrants, and at the same time the most natural and tender of lyric poets." Peacock, Works, iii. 452. The words in brackets are added by Forman, from MS. Compare Mrs. Shelley's Note on Peter Bell. 172 Lines. This poem appears to be dated a year too early, as it apparently refers to the death of Harriet, in November, 1816. 174 The Sunset. "The poem, entitled The Sunset, was written in the spring of the year, while still residing at Bishopsgate." Mrs. Shelley's Note, 18391, iii. 35. The lines seem to contain elements of memory as well as of imagination, and are the first in which language is completely charged with Shelley's genius and follows in its cadences the moulding of the living voice of a new poet, with a music as distinct, penetrating and personal as that of Milton or Shakespeare. TEXT: 9 He | We 1823. 22 Forman's conjecture substitutes melodrama for natural feeling and expression. 37 omit 18391,2, Rossetti. 38 worn || torn 18391,2. Signed ▲ 1823. 176 Hymn to Intellectual Beauty. First announced under the signature of The Elfin Knight, but published with Shelley's name. "He spent the summer on the shores of the Lake of Geneva. The Hymn to Intellectual Beauty was conceived during his voyage round the lake with Lord Byron. He occupied himself during this voyage, by reading the Nouvelle Héloïse for the first time. The reading it on the very spot where the scenes are laid, added to the interest; and he was at once surprised and charmed by the passionate eloquence and earnest enthralling interest that pervades this work. There was something in the character of Saint-Preux, in his abnegation of self, and in the worship he paid to Love, that coincided with Shelley's own disposition; and, though differing in many of the views, and shocked by others, yet the effect of the whole was fascinating and delightful." Mrs. Shelley's Note, 18392, p. 197. TEXT: vii. 4 or || nor 18391,2. 179 Mont Blanc. "The Poem entitled Mont Blanc is written by the author of the two letters from Chamouni and Vevai. It was composed under the immediate impression of the deep and powerful feelings excited by the objects which it attempts to describe; and, as an undisciplined overflowing of the soul, rests its claim to approbation on an attempt to imitate the untamable wildness and inaccessible solemnity from which those feelings sprang." Shelley's Note, Preface to History of a Six Weeks Tour, 1817. "Mont Blanc was inspired by a view of that mountain and its surrounding peaks and valleys, as he lingered on the Bridge of Arve on his way through the Valley of Chamouni." Mrs. Shelley's Note, 18391, iii. 35. TEXT: ii. 4 cloud, 1824; clouds, 18391,2. 9 The 18391,2. 19 commotion 1824, Rossetti. iii. 8 Speed 18391,2. 31 The reading of the Boscombe MS. only is intelligible. iv. 19 Slowly 18391,2. iv. 32 spoil; all editions. 33 gone, all editions. 38 torrent's, 1817, 1824, 18391,2, Forman. POEMS WRITTEN IN 1817 Mrs. Shelley's Note, 18392, p. 205: "The very illness that oppressed, and the aspect of death which had approached so near Shelley, appears to have kindled to yet keener life the spirit of poetry in his heart. The restless thoughts kept awake by pain clothed themselves in verse. Much was composed during this year. The Revolt of Islam, written and printed, was a great effort - Rosalind and Helen was begun and the fragments and poems I can trace to the same period, show how full of passion and reflection were his solitary hours. "His readings this year were chiefly Greek. Besides the Hymns of Homer and the Iliad, he read the Dramas of Eschylus and Sophocles, the Symposium of Plato, and Arrian's Historia Indica. In Latin, Apuleius alone is named. In English, the Bible was his constant study; he read a great portion of it aloud in the evening. Among these evening readings, I find also mentioned the Faëry Queen; and other modern works, the production of his contemporaries, Coleridge, Wordsworth, Moore, and Byron. “His life was now spent more in thought than action he had lost the eager spirit which believed it could achieve what it projected for the benefit of mankind. And yet in the converse of daily life Shelley was far from being a melancholy man. He was eloquent when philosophy, or politics, or taste, were the subjects of conversation. He was playful and indulged in the wild spirit that mocked itself and others - not in bitterness, but in sport. The Author of Nightmare Abbey [Peacock] seized on some points of his character and some habits of his life when he painted Scythrop. He was not addicted to 'port or madeira,' but in youth he had read of 'Illuminati and Eleutherarchs,' and believed that he possessed the power of operating an immediate change in the minds of men and the state of society. These wild dreams had faded; sorrow and adversity had struck home; but he struggled with despondency as he did with physical pain. There are few who remember him sailing paper boats, and watching the navigation of his tiny craft with eagerness or repeating with wild energy The Ancient Mariner, and Southey's Old Woman of Berkeley - but those who do, will recollect that it was in such, and in the creations of his own fancy, when that was most daring and ideal, that he sheltered himself from the storms and disappointments, the pain and sorrow, that beset his life." 185 Marianne's Dream. Hunt to Shelley, November 12, 1818: "I have been writing a Pocket-Book. It is entitled . . . and contains original poetry, among which I have taken the liberty (Hunt is too ceremonious sometimes') of publishing Marianne's Dream, to the great delight of said Marianne [Mrs. Hunt, who had related the dream to Shelley], not to mention its various MS. readers." Hunt, Correspondence, i. 125. TEXT: iii. 6 gold 18391,2. v. 4 nor 18391,2. xii. 1 that || each James Thomson conj. The conjecture and the similar one below are purely fanciful. xv. 1 waves 1824, 18391,2. xvi. 4 mountain 1824, 18391,2. This reading and the same in xxii. 2 give a more consonant sense and may be correct. xvii. 3 flood | flames James Thomson conj. xix. 5 that || who 18391.2. xxii. 2 mountain 1824, 18391,2. 3 flood floor 18391,2. Signed ▲ 1819. 191 To Constantia Singing. "He was especially fond of the novels of Brown - Charles Brockden Brown, the American. The heroine of this novel [Ormond], Constantia Dudley, held one of the highest places, if not the highest place, in Shelley's idealities of female character. Nothing stood so clearly before his |