* * * * *
The flowers are withered up with grief.
* * * * *
Echo resounds, . . "Adonis dead!"
* * * * *
She clasped him, and cried ... "Stay, Adonis!
Stay, dearest one,...
And mix my lips with thine!
Wake yet a while, Adonis--oh but once!--
That I may kiss thee now for the last time--
But for as long as one short kiss may live!"
The reader familiar with _Adonais_ will recognise the passages in that
poem of which we here have the originals. To avoid repetition, I do not
cite them at the moment, but shall call attention to them successively
in my Notes at the end of the volume.
For other passages, also utilised by Shelley, I have recourse to the
volume of Mr. Andrew Lang (Macmillan & Co. 1889), _Theocritus, Bion, and
Moschus, rendered into English Prose_. And first, from Bion's Elegy on
Adonis:--
'The flowers flush red for anguish.... This kiss will I treasure, even
as thyself, Adonis, since, ah ill-fated! thou art fleeing me,... while
wretched I yet live, being a goddess, and may not follow thee.
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