'
Shelley adopts this designation, which he magnifies into 'the Pilgrim of
Eternity,' He admired Byron most enthusiastically as a poet, and was
generally on easy--sometimes on cordial--terms with him as a man. He has
left us a fine and discriminating portrait of Byron in the 'Count
Maddalo' of his poem _Julian and Maddalo_, written in 1818. At times
however Shelley felt and expressed great indignation against Byron,
especially in reference to the ungenerous and cruel conduct of the
latter towards Miss Clairmont. See some brief reference to this matter
at p. 9.
11. 3-5. _Whose fame Over his living head like heaven is bent, An early
but enduring monument._ These phrases are not very definite. When fame
is spoken of as being bent over Byron's head, we must conceive of fame
as taking a form cognizable by the senses. I think Shelley means to
assimilate it to the rainbow; saying substantially--Fame is like an arc
bent over Byron's head, as the arc of the rainbow is bent over the
expanse of heaven. The ensuing term 'monument' applies rather to fame in
the abstract than to any image of fame as an arc.
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