4. 
How calm it was!—­the silence there
By such a chain was bound
That even the busy woodpecker 35
Made stiller by her sound
The inviolable quietness;
The breath of peace we drew
With its soft motion made not less
The calm that round us grew. 40
There seemed from the remotest seat
Of the white mountain waste,
To the soft flower beneath our feet,
A magic circle traced,—­
A spirit interfused around 45
A thrilling, silent life,—­
To momentary peace it bound
Our mortal nature’s strife;
And still I felt the centre of
The magic circle there 50
Was one fair form that filled with love
The lifeless atmosphere.

5. 
We paused beside the pools that lie
Under the forest bough,—­
Each seemed as ’twere a little sky 55
Gulfed in a world below;
A firmament of purple light
Which in the dark earth lay,
More boundless than the depth of night,
And purer than the day—­ 60
In which the lovely forests grew,
As in the upper air,
More perfect both in shape and hue
Than any spreading there. 
There lay the glade and neighbouring lawn, 65
And through the dark green wood
The white sun twinkling like the dawn
Out of a speckled cloud. 
Sweet views which in our world above
Can never well be seen, 70
Were imaged by the water’s love
Of that fair forest green. 
And all was interfused beneath
With an Elysian glow,
An atmosphere without a breath, 75
A softer day below. 
Like one beloved the scene had lent
To the dark water’s breast,
Its every leaf and lineament
With more than truth expressed; 80
Until an envious wind crept by,
Like an unwelcome thought,
Which from the mind’s too faithful eye
Blots one dear image out. 
Though thou art ever fair and kind, 85
The forests ever green,
Less oft is peace in Shelley’s mind,
Than calm in waters, seen.

NOTES:  6 fled edition. 1824; dead Trelawny manuscript, 1839, 2nd edition. 10 Ocean’s]Ocean 1839, 2nd edition. 24 Interlaced, 1839; interlaced; cj.  A.C.  Bradley. 28 own; 1839 own, cj.  A.C.  Bradley. 42 white Trelawny manuscript; wide 1839, 2nd edition 87 Shelley’s Trelawny manuscript; S—­’s 1839, 2nd edition.]

***

THE PINE FOREST OF THE CASCINE NEAR PISA.

[This, the first draft of “To Jane:  The Invitation, The Recollection”, was published by Mrs. Shelley, “Posthumous Poems”, 1824, and reprinted, “Poetical Works”, 1839, 1st edition.  See Editor’s Prefatory Note to “The Invitation”, above.]