NOTES: 
4 Spirit 1862; O Spirit C.C.C. manuscript.
8 This wandering melody 1862;
   These wandering melodies...  C.C.C. manuscript.

***

FRAGMENT:  THE LAKE’S MARGIN.

[Published by W.M.  Rossetti, 1870.]

The fierce beasts of the woods and wildernesses
Track not the steps of him who drinks of it;
For the light breezes, which for ever fleet
Around its margin, heap the sand thereon.

***

FRAGMENT:  ‘MY HEAD IS WILD WITH WEEPING’.

[Published by W.M.  Rossetti, 1870.]

My head is wild with weeping for a grief
Which is the shadow of a gentle mind. 
I walk into the air (but no relief
To seek,—­or haply, if I sought, to find;
It came unsought);—­to wonder that a chief 5
Among men’s spirits should be cold and blind.

NOTE: 
4 find cj.  A.C.  Bradley.

***

FRAGMENT:  THE VINE-SHROUD.

[Published by W.M.  Rossetti, 1870.]

Flourishing vine, whose kindling clusters glow
Beneath the autumnal sun, none taste of thee;
For thou dost shroud a ruin, and below
The rotting bones of dead antiquity.

***

NOTE ON POEMS OF 1818, BY MRS. SHELLEY.

We often hear of persons disappointed by a first visit to Italy.  This was not Shelley’s case.  The aspect of its nature, its sunny sky, its majestic storms, of the luxuriant vegetation of the country, and the noble marble-built cities, enchanted him.  The sight of the works of art was full enjoyment and wonder.  He had not studied pictures or statues before; he now did so with the eye of taste, that referred not to the rules of schools, but to those of Nature and truth.  The first entrance to Rome opened to him a scene of remains of antique grandeur that far surpassed his expectations; and the unspeakable beauty of Naples and its environs added to the impression he received of the transcendent and glorious beauty of Italy.

Our winter was spent at Naples.  Here he wrote the fragments of “Marenghi” and “The Woodman and the Nightingale”, which he afterwards threw aside.  At this time, Shelley suffered greatly in health.  He put himself under the care of a medical man, who promised great things, and made him endure severe bodily pain, without any good results.  Constant and poignant physical suffering exhausted him; and though he preserved the appearance of cheerfulness, and often greatly enjoyed our wanderings in the environs of Naples, and our excursions on its sunny sea, yet many hours were passed when his thoughts, shadowed by illness, became gloomy,—­and then he escaped to solitude, and in verses, which he hid from fear of wounding me, poured forth morbid but too natural