GREEK SOURCES OF SHELLEY^S ADONAIS 321 



Stanza XXXYI. 



Our AdonaiS has drunk poison — oh ! 



What deaf and viperous murderer could crown 



Life's early cup with such a draft of woe ? 



This is an echo from Moschus' song, which contains the tradi- 

 tion that Bion met his death by poison given by some foe. Here 

 again the literal poison of the Greek model becomes the poison of 

 the reviewers' fatal pen. 



116-119. Poison hath come, Bion, to thy lips. How could it 

 touch thy lips and not be sweetened ? What man so cruel as to mix 

 the fatal drug and give it to thy singing lips 'i Verily he was an 

 enemy of song.^^' 



One could, perhaps, find other echoes in the Adonais from its 

 Greek predecessors, but they are more vague and uncertain. Enough 

 passages have already been cited to show how closely Shelley follows 

 his models, and yet with what originality he adapts the old forms 

 and conventions to the particular demands of his subject. 



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