5
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.

4.

His song, though very sweet, was low and faint,
A simple strain.

* * * * *

5.

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. 5

6.

And like a sudden meteor which outstrips
The splendour-winged chariot of the sun,
... eclipse
The armies of the golden stars, each one
Pavilioned in its tent of light--all strewn 5
Over the chasms of blue night--

NOTES.

PREFACE.

Line 1. _Adonais_. There is nothing to show positively why Shelley
adopted the name Adonais as a suitable Hellenic name for John Keats. I
have already suggested (p. 59) that he may perhaps have wished to
indicate, in this indirect way, that his poem was founded partly upon
the Elegy of Bion for Adonis. I believe the name Adonais was not really
in use among the Greeks, and is not anywhere traceable in classical
Grecian literature. It has sometimes been regarded as a Doricized form
of the name Adonis: Mr. William Cory says that it is not this, but would
properly be a female form of the same name. Dr. Furnivall has suggested
to me that Adonais is 'Shelley's variant of Adonias, the women's yearly
mourning for Adonis.' Disregarding details, we may perhaps say that the
whole subject of his Elegy is treated by Shelley as a transposition of
the lament, as conceived by Bion, of the Cyprian Aphrodite for Adonis;
and that, as he changes the Cyprian into the Uranian Aphrodite, so he
changes the dead youth from Adonis into Adonais.

1. 4. _Motto from the poet Plato_. This motto has been translated
by Shelley himself as follows:

'Thou wert the morning star among the living,
Ere thy fair light had fled:--
Now, having died, thou art as Hesperus, giving
New splendour to the dead.'

1. 8. _Motto from Moschus_. Translated on p. 66, 'Poison came, Bion,'
&c.

1. 13. _It is my intention to subjoin to the London edition of this poem
a criticism_, &c. As to the non-fulfilment of this intention see p. 31.

1. 16. _My known repugnance ... proves at least_. In the Pisa edition