Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822). Prometheus, iii. 3. Robert Bridges, ed. 1916. The Spirit of Man: An Anthology

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Robert Bridges, ed. (1844–1930). The Spirit of Man: An Anthology. 1916.

Prometheus, iii. 3

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)


.. THE ECHOES 1 of the human world, which tell
Of the low voice of Love, almost unheard,
And dove-eyed Pity’s murmured pain; and Music,
Itself the echo of the heart, and all
That tempers or improves man’s life, now free; 2	5
And lovely apparitions, dim at first,
Then radiant—as the mind arising bright
From the embrace of Beauty (whence the forms
Of which these are the phantoms) casts on them
The gathered rays which are reality—	10
Shall visit us, the progeny immortal
Of Painting, Sculpture, and rapt Poesy,
And arts, tho’ unimagined, yet to be.
The wandering voices and the shadows these
Of all that man becomes, the mediators	15
Of that best worship, Love,—by him and us
Given and returned; swift shapes and sounds, which grow
More fair and soft as man grows wise and kind,
And, veil by veil, evil and error fall …

Note 1. Shelley. ‘Prometheus’, iii. 3. The great beauty of this passage suffers from the involved grammar, which deepens its obscurities, while the original punctuation still further hampers it. I have entirely discarded Shelley’s punctuation, and added some capitals, hoping to make a more readable text. Note that in as the mind (line 7) as means when not like as. [back]

Note 2. that is after the deliverance of Prometheus. [back]

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