Page:The complete poetical works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, including materials never before printed in any edition of the poems.djvu/193

Rh Sweeps in his dream-drawn chariot, far and fast, More fleet than storms— the wide world shrinks below, When winter and despondency are past.

' at this season that Prince Athanase Passed the white Alps—those eagle-baffling mountains Slept in their shrouds of snow;—beside the ways

The waterfalls were voiceless—for their fountains Were changed to mines of sunless crystal now, Or by the curdling winds— like brazen wings

Which clanged along the mountain's marble brow— Warped into adamantine fretwork, hung And filled with frozen light the chasms below.

Vexed by the blast, the great pines groaned and swung Under their load of [snow]—**** Such as the eagle sees, when he dives down From the gray deserts of wide air, [beheld] [Prince] Athanase; and o'er his mien (?) was thrown

The shadow of that scene, field after field, Purple and dim and wide

Thou art the wine whose drunkenness is all We can desire, O Love! and happy souls, Ere from thy vine the leaves of autumn fall.

Catch thee, and feed from their o'erflowing bowls Thousands who thirst for thine ambrosial dew;— Thou art the radiance which where ocean rolls

Investeth it; and when the heavens are blue Thou fillest them; and when the earth is fair The shadow of thy moving wings imbue

Its deserts and its mountains, till they wear Beauty like some light robe;— thou ever soarest Among the towers of men, and as soft air

In spring, which moves the unawakened forest, Clothing with leaves its branches bare and bleak, Thou floatest among men; and aye implorest