***

FRAGMENT:  TO ONE SINGING.

[Dated 1817 by Mrs. Shelley, and published in the “Poetical Works”, 1839, 1st edition.  The manuscript original, by which Mr. Locock has revised and (by one line) enlarged the text, is amongst the Shelley manuscripts at the Bodleian.  The metre, as Mr. Locock ("Examination”, etc., 1903, page 63) points out, is terza rima.]

My spirit like a charmed bark doth swim
Upon the liquid waves of thy sweet singing,
Far far away into the regions dim

Of rapture—­as a boat, with swift sails winging
Its way adown some many-winding river, 5
Speeds through dark forests o’er the waters swinging...

NOTES:  3 Far far away B.; Far away 1839. 6 Speeds...swinging B.; omitted 1839.

***

A FRAGMENT:  TO MUSIC.

[Published in “Poetical Works”, 1839, 1st edition.  Dated 1817 (Mrs. Shelley).]

Silver key of the fountain of tears,
Where the spirit drinks till the brain is wild;
Softest grave of a thousand fears,
Where their mother, Care, like a drowsy child,
Is laid asleep in flowers. 5

***

ANOTHER FRAGMENT:  TO MUSIC.

[Published in “Poetical Works”, 1839, 1st edition.  Dated 1817 (Mrs. Shelley).]

No, Music, thou art not the ‘food of Love.’ 
Unless Love feeds upon its own sweet self,
Till it becomes all Music murmurs of.

***

‘MIGHTY EAGLE’.

SUPPOSED TO BE ADDRESSED TO WILLIAM GODWIN.

[Published in 1882 ("Poetical Works of P. B. S.”) by Mr. H. Buxton Forman, C.B., by whom it is dated 1817.]

Mighty eagle! thou that soarest
O’er the misty mountain forest,
And amid the light of morning
Like a cloud of glory hiest,
And when night descends defiest 5
The embattled tempests’ warning!

***

TO THE LORD CHANCELLOR.

[Published in part (5-9, 14) by Mrs. Shelley, “Poetical Works”, 1839, 1st edition (without title); in full 2nd edition (with title).  Four transcripts in Mrs. Shelley’s hand are extant:  two—­Leigh Hunt’s and Ch.  Cowden Clarke’s—­described by Forman, and two belonging to Mr. C.W.  Frederickson of Brooklyn, described by Woodberry ["Poetical Works”, Centenary Edition, 3 193-6].  One of the latter (here referred to as Fa) is corrected in Shelley’s autograph.  A much-corrected draft in Shelley’s hand is in the Harvard manuscript book.]

1. 
Thy country’s curse is on thee, darkest crest
Of that foul, knotted, many-headed worm
Which rends our Mother’s bosom—­Priestly Pest! 
Masked Resurrection of a buried Form!