PASSAGES OF THE POEM.

And ever as he went he swept a lyre
Of unaccustomed shape, and ... strings
Now like the ... of impetuous fire,
Which shakes the forest with its murmurings,
Now like the rush of the aereal wings 5
Of the enamoured wind among the treen,
Whispering unimaginable things,
And dying on the streams of dew serene,
Which feed the unmown meads with ever-during green.

...

And the green Paradise which western waves 10
Embosom in their ever-wailing sweep,
Talking of freedom to their tongueless caves,
Or to the spirits which within them keep
A record of the wrongs which, though they sleep,
Die not, but dream of retribution, heard 15
His hymns, and echoing them from steep to steep,
Kept—­

...

And then came one of sweet and earnest looks,
Whose soft smiles to his dark and night-like eyes
Were as the clear and ever-living brooks 20
Are to the obscure fountains whence they rise,
Showing how pure they are:  a Paradise
Of happy truth upon his forehead low
Lay, making wisdom lovely, in the guise
Of earth-awakening morn upon the brow 25
Of star-deserted heaven, while ocean gleams below.

His song, though very sweet, was low and faint,
A simple strain—­

...

A mighty Phantasm, half concealed
In darkness of his own exceeding light, 30
Which clothed his awful presence unrevealed,
Charioted on the ... night
Of thunder-smoke, whose skirts were chrysolite.

And like a sudden meteor, which outstrips
The splendour-winged chariot of the sun, 35
... eclipse
The armies of the golden stars, each one
Pavilioned in its tent of light—­all strewn
Over the chasms of blue night—­

***

HELLAS

A LYRICAL DRAMA.

MANTIS EIM EZTHLON AGONUN.—­OEDIP.  COLON.

["Hellas” was composed at Pisa in the autumn of 1821, and dispatched to London, November 11.  It was published, with the author’s name, by C. & J. Ollier in the spring of 1822.  A transcript of the poem by Edward Williams is in the Rowfant Library.  Ollier availed himself of Shelley’s permission to cancel certain passages in the notes; he also struck out certain lines of the text.  These omissions were, some of them, restored in Galignani’s one-volume edition of “Coleridge, Shelley and Keats”, Paris, 1829, and also by Mrs. Shelley in the “Poetical Works”, 1839.  A passage in the “Preface”, suppressed by Ollier, was restored by Mr. Buxton Forman (1892) from a proof copy of “Hellas” in his possession.  The “Prologue to Hellas” was edited by Dr. Garnett in 1862 ("Relics of Shelley”) from the manuscripts at Boscombe Manor.