Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, LINES WRITTEN NEAR SHELLEY'S HOUSE, by AUBREY DE VERE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

LINES WRITTEN NEAR SHELLEY'S HOUSE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: And here he paced! These glimmering pathways
Subject(s): Italy


And here he paced! These glimmering pathways strewn
With faded leaves, his light, swift footsteps crushed;
The odour of yon pine was o'er him blown;
Music went by him in each wind that brushed
Those thin, close stems of ilex!
Here alone He walked at noon, or silent stood, and hushed,
Where the ground- ivy with its dusky sheen
Carpets this cliff- hung forest always green.


Far down, upon the shelves and sands below,
The respirations of a southern sea
Beat with incessant cadence, soft and slow;
Round the grey cave's fantastic imagery,
In undulation eddying to and fro,
The purple waves swell up or backward flee;
While dewed at each rebound with gentlest shock,
The myrtle leans her green breast on the rock.


And here he stood; upon his face the light,
Streamed from some furthest realm of luminous thought,
Which clothed his fragile beauty with the might
Of suns for ever rising! Here he caught
Visions divine. He saw in fiery flight
The ' hand of heaven, ' with heavenly vengeance fraught,
'Run down the slanted sunlight of the morn; '
Prometheus frown on Jove with scorn for scorn. "


Through cloud, and wave, and star, his insight keen
Shone clear, and traced a god in each disguise;
Protean, boundless. Like the buskined scene
All nature stung him into ecstasies;
In him, alas! had reverence equal been
With admiration, those resplendent eyes
Had wandered not through all his range sublime,
To miss the one great marvel of all time.






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