LANDSCAPE 295 



stars and exhalations and the soul of man. This life of the 

 world has for one of its main manifestations the ideal beauty 

 which led Alastor captive. The supreme expression of the 

 world-soul, conceived as beauty, intangible, elusive, un- 

 approachable, is given in that song which a voice in the air 

 sings to Asia : l 



Life of Life ! thy lips enkindle 



With their love the breath between them ; 



And thy smiles before they dwindle 



Make the cold air fire ; then screen them 



In those looks, where whoso gazes 



Faints, entangled in their mazes. 



Child of Light ! thy limbs are burning 



Through the vest which seems to hide them ; 



As the radiant lines of morning 



Through the clouds ere they divide them ; 



And this atmosphere divinest 



Shrouds thee wheresoe'er thou shinest. 



Fair are others ! none beholds thee, 



But thy voice sounds low and tender 



Like the fairest, for it folds thee 



From the sight, that liquid splendour, 



And all feel, yet see thee never, 



As I feel now, lost for ever ! 



Lamp of earth ! where'er thou movest 



Its dim shapes are clad with brightness, 



And the souls of whom thou lovest 



Walk upon the winds with brightness, 



Till they fail, as I am failing, 



Dizzy, lost, yet unbewailing ! 



The relation of man's soul to the world-soul, conceived by 

 the poet as Life, Light, Love, and Beauty, is denned with 

 more than usual precision in the following stanza from 

 ' Adonais.' Keats has died : 



He is a portion of the loveliness 



Which once he made more lovely ; he doth bear 



His part, while the one spirit's plastic stress 



Sweeps through the dull dense world, compelling there 



Prometheus Unbound, Act ii., Scene 5, 



