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Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 1792-1822

"Adonais"

This is not correct; for the verb has often been thus
used by standard English authors. Such a practice was not however common
in Shelley's time, and he may have been guided chiefly by the rhyming.
+Stanza 32,+ 1. 4. _The weight of the superincumbent hour._ This line is
scarcely rhythmical: to bring it within the ordinary scheme of ryhthm,
one would have to lay an exaggerated stress on two of its feet--'the
superincumbent.' Neither this treatment of the line, nor the line itself
apart from this treatment, can easily be justified.
+Stanza 33,+ 11. 1, 2. _His head was bound with pansies overblown,
And faded violets._ The pansy is the flower of thought, or memory:
we commonly call it heartsease, but Shelley no doubt uses it here
with a different, or indeed contrary, meaning. The violet indicates
modesty. A stanza from one of his lyrics may be appropriately
cited--_Remembrance_, dated 1821:--
'Lilies for a bridal bed,
Roses for a matron's head,
Violets for a maiden dead,
Pansies let _my_ flowers be.
On the living grave I bear
Scatter them without a tear;
Let no friend, however dear,
Waste a hope, a fear, for me.


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