THE "ADONAIS" OF SHELLEY. 27 



" And smiled ! the spoilers tempt no second blow 



" But fawn on the proud feet that spurn them as they go." 



Among the mourners are introduced Lord Byron, 

 Moore, and Shelley himself the portrait of the 

 latter, by his own pencil, has, perhaps, never been 

 surpassed for its deep and melancholy pathos : 



Thus ceased she : and the mountain shepherds came 



Their garlands sere, their magic mantles rent; 

 The pilgrim of Eternity, whose fame 



Over his living head, like Heaven, is bent, 



An early but enduring monument, 

 Came, veiling all the lightning of his song 



In sorrow ; from her wild lerne sent 

 The sweetest lyrist of her saddest wrong 

 And love taught grief to fall like music from his tongue. 



Midst others of less note came one frail form 



A phantom among men : companionless 

 As the last cloud of an expiring storm 



Whose thunder is its knell; he, as I guess, 



Had gazed on Nature's naked loveliness, 

 Actaeon like, and now he fled astray 



With feeble steps o'er the worlds wilderness, 

 And his own thoughts, along that rugged way, 

 Pursued like raging hounds, their father and their prey. 



A pard-like spirit beautiful and swift : 



A love in desolation masked ; a power 

 Girt round with weakness ; it can scarce uplift 



The weight of the superincumbent hour; 



It is a dying lamp, a falling shower, 

 A breaking billow : even while we speak 



Is it not broken ? on the withering flower 

 The killing sun shines brightly; on a cheek 

 The life can burn in blood, even while the heart may break. 



His head was bound with pansies overblown, 



And faded violets, white and pied and blue ; 

 And a light spear topped with a cypress cone, 



Round whose rude shaft dark ivy tresses grew 



Yet dripping with the forests' noon-day dew, 

 Vibrated, as the ever beating heart 



Shook the weak hand that grasped it ; of that crew 



