Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, LINES WRITTEN FOR ADONAIS, by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

LINES WRITTEN FOR ADONAIS, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: And ever as he went he swept a lyre
Last Line: Over the chasms of blue night --


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 aerial wings
Of the enamoured wind among the treen,
Whispering unimaginable things,
And dying on the streams of dew serene,
Which feed the unmown meads with everduring green.

And the green Paradise which western waves
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
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 nightlike eyes
Were as the clear and ever living brooks
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
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,
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 splendor-winged chariot of the sun, eclipse
The armies of the golden stars, each one
Pavilioned in its tent of light -- all strewn
Over the chasms of blue night --





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