25. 
In the death-chamber for a moment Death,
Shamed by the presence of that living Might,
Blushed to annihilation, and the breath
Revisited those lips, and Life’s pale light 220
Flashed through those limbs, so late her dear delight. 
’Leave me not wild and drear and comfortless,
As silent lightning leaves the starless night! 
Leave me not!’ cried Urania:  her distress
Roused Death:  Death rose and smiled, and met her vain caress. 225

26. 
’Stay yet awhile! speak to me once again;
Kiss me, so long but as a kiss may live;
And in my heartless breast and burning brain
That word, that kiss, shall all thoughts else survive,
With food of saddest memory kept alive, 230
Now thou art dead, as if it were a part
Of thee, my Adonais!  I would give
All that I am to be as thou now art! 
But I am chained to Time, and cannot thence depart!

27. 
’O gentle child, beautiful as thou wert, 235
Why didst thou leave the trodden paths of men
Too soon, and with weak hands though mighty heart
Dare the unpastured dragon in his den? 
Defenceless as thou wert, oh, where was then
Wisdom the mirrored shield, or scorn the spear? 240
Or hadst thou waited the full cycle, when
Thy spirit should have filled its crescent sphere,
The monsters of life’s waste had fled from thee like deer.

28. 
’The herded wolves, bold only to pursue;
The obscene ravens, clamorous o’er the dead; 245
The vultures to the conqueror’s banner true
Who feed where Desolation first has fed,
And whose wings rain contagion;—­how they fled,
When, like Apollo, from his golden bow
The Pythian of the age one arrow sped 250
And smiled!—­The spoilers tempt no second blow,
They fawn on the proud feet that spurn them lying low.

29. 
’The sun comes forth, and many reptiles spawn;
He sets, and each ephemeral insect then
Is gathered into death without a dawn, 255
And the immortal stars awake again;
So is it in the world of living men: 
A godlike mind soars forth, in its delight
Making earth bare and veiling heaven, and when
It sinks, the swarms that dimmed or shared its light 260
Leave to its kindred lamps the spirit’s awful night.’

30. 
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, 265
An early but enduring monument,
Came, veiling all the lightnings of his song
In sorrow; from her wilds Ierne sent
The sweetest lyrist of her saddest wrong,
And Love taught Grief to fall like music from his tongue. 270