Page:Shelley, a poem, with other writings (Thomson, Debell).djvu/74

56 Ocean, apparently immediately after its fulfilment, Apollo says:—

So that it is now about sunrise, not a hint being given by Apollo that he is rising at a later hour than usual; he is summoned by the Morning Star. What, then, becomes of "The sun will rise not until noon" already cited? True, in commencing his relation, Apollo says that the strife "made dim the orb I rule, and shook the solid stars"; this, however, is not apposite to earthly time, whether of night or day, but to the universal convulsion produced by the celestial catastrophe. The other words of the Spirit of the Hour, "We shall rest from long labours at noon," may be understood as pointing to the time of Act III. sc. iii., the release and triumph of Prometheus, at which this Spirit with Asia and Panthea is present. What, we may venture to ask, is the reason for this aerial excursion? which does not even appear to be required as a motive for the divine poetry of Act II. sc. v., with the exception of a very few lines; for it is to be remarked that the ecstatic voyage so gloriously chanted by Asia, past Age, Manhood, Youth, Infancy, "Through Death and Birth, to a diviner day," is not and cannot be proper to the chariot of the Hour, but is "In music's most serene dominions" floating "upon the silver waves of thy sweet singing," inward beatitude expressed and responded to by outward radiance of beauty and rapture of swift far flight and intoxication of spiritual harmony. The real reason, I think, is twofold, a double stem rooted in one