ificent moods, Byron remains faithful; and his portrayal of the night
and the storm and the ocean in _Childe Harold_ are unsurpassed in our
language.

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY (1792-1822)

Make me thy lyre, even as the forest is:
What if my leaves are falling like its own!
The tumult of thy mighty harmonies
Will take from both a deep, autumnal tone,
Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, spirit fierce,
My spirit! Be thou me, impetuous one!

In this fragment, from the "Ode to the West Wind," we have a suggestion of
Shelley's own spirit, as reflected in all his poetry. The very spirit of
nature, which appeals to us in the wind and the cloud, the sunset and the
moonrise, seems to have possessed him, at times, and made him a chosen
instrument of melody. At such times he is a true poet, and his work is
unrivaled. At other times, unfortunately, Shelley joins with Byron in
voicing a vain rebellion against society. His poetry, like his life,
divides itself into two distinct moods. In one he is the violent reformer,
seeking to overthrow our present institutions and to hurry the millennium
out of its slow walk into a gallop. Out of this mood come most of his
longer poems, like _Queen Mab, Revolt of Islam, Hellas_, and _The Witch of
Atlas_, which are somewhat violent diatribes against government, priests,
marriage, religion, even God as men supposed him to be. In a different
mood, which finds expression _Alastor, Adonais_, and his wonderful lyrics,
Shelley is like a wanderer following a vague, beautiful vision, forever sad
and forever unsatisfied. In the latter mood he appeals profoundly to all
men who have known what it is to follow after an unattainable ideal.

SHELLEY'S LIFE. There are three classes of men who see visions, and all
three are represented in our literature. The first is the mere dreamer,
like Blake, who stumbles through a world of reality without noticing it,
and is happy in his visions. The second is the seer, the prophet, like
Langland, or Wyclif, who sees a vision and quietly goes to work, in ways
that men understand, to make the present world a little more like the ideal
one which he sees in his vision. The third, who appears in many forms,--as
visionary, enthusiast, radical, anarchist, revolutionary, call him what you
will,--sees a vision and straightway begins to tear down all human
institutions, which have been built up by the slow toil of centuries,
simply because they seem to st