1. 8. With no stain. Leaving no trace behind.  The rhyme has entailed the use of the word ‘stain,’ which is otherwise a little arbitrary in this connexion.

1. 9. She faded, like a cloud which had outwept its rain. A rain-cloud which has fully discharged its rain would no longer constitute a cloud—­it would be dispersed and gone.  The image is therefore a very exact one for the Dream which, having accomplished its function and its life, now ceases to be.  There appears to be a further parallel intended—­between the Dream whose existence closes in a tear, and the rain-cloud which has discharged its rain:  this is of less moment, and verges upon a conceit.  This passage in Adonais is not without some analogy to one in Keats’s Endymion (quoted on p. 42)—­

’Therein
A melancholy spirit well might win
Oblivion, and melt out his essence fine
Into the winds.’

Stanza 11+ 11. 1, 2. One from a lucid urn of starry dew Washed his light limbs, as if embalming them. See the passage from Bion (p. 64), ‘One in a golden vessel bears water, and another laves the wound.’  The expression ‘starry dew’ is rather peculiar:  the dew may originally have ‘starred’ the grass, but, when collected into an urn, it must have lost this property:  perhaps we should rather understand, nocturnal dew upon which the stars had been shining.  It is difficult to see how the act of washing the limbs could simulate the process of embalming.

1. 3. Another clipt her profuse locks. See Bion (p. 64), ’clipping their locks for Adonis.’  ‘Profuse’ is here accented on the first syllable; although indeed the line can be read with the accent, as is usual, on the second syllable.

11. 3-5. And threw The wreath upon him like an anadem Which frozen tears instead of pearls begem. The wreath is the lock of hair—­perhaps a plait or curl, for otherwise the term wreath is rather wide of the mark.  The idea that the tears shed by this Dream herself (or perhaps other Dreams) upon the lock are ‘frozen,’ and thus stand in lieu of pearls upon an anadem or circlet, seems strained, and indeed incongruous:  one might wish it away.

11. 6, 7. Another in her wilful grief would break Her bow and winged reeds. Follows Bion closely—­’And one upon his shafts, another on his bow, is treading’ (p. 64).  This is perfectly appropriate for the Loves, or Cupids:  not equally so for the Dreams, for it is not so apparent what concern they have with bows and arrows.  These may however be ’winged thoughts’ or ’winged words’—­[Greek:  epea pteroenta].  Mr. Andrew Lang observes (Introduction to his Theocritus volume), ’In one or other of the sixteen Pompeian pictures of Venus and Adonis, the Loves are breaking their bows and arrows for grief, as in the hymn of Bion.’