Which, from sensation's relics, fancy culls; Of thy blind heart: yet still thy youthful hands Their everlasting and unchanging laws Reproached thine ignorance. Awhile thou stoodest SONNET. FROM THE ITALIAN OF DANTE. Dante Alighieri to Guido Cavalcanti.1 GUIDO, I would that Lappo, thou, and I, With winds at will where'er our thoughts might wend, And that no change, nor any evil chance 1 Among the MSS. of Leigh Hunt, several times referred to in this edition, is a translation by Shelley of Guido Cavalcanti's Sonnet to Dante, "Io vegno il giorno a te infinite volte." It will be found in a later volume. 2 Mrs. Shelley's editions read so for and. Should mar our joyous voyage; but it might be, Between our hearts their strict community: Companions of our wandering, and would grace TRANSLATED FROM THE GREEK OF MOSCHUS. WHEN winds that move not its calm surface sweep 1 Shelley can hardly have forgotten that Bice was the beloved of Dante, and I suspect the word my is a misprint for thy. The translation would still be incorrect; but the poet might easily have got confused about the less important ladies of Lapo and Guido. I cannot bring myself to think Shelley could have written Vanna and Bice and his gentle love as a translation of the lines E Monna Vanna, e Monna Bice poi, Con quella su il numer delle trenta, meaning literally "and Lady Vanna, and then Lady Bice, with her on num ber thirty" (of Dante's list of the sixty fairest ladies of Florence: sec Vita Nuova). THE DEMON OF THE WORLD. A FRAGMENT. Nec tantum prodere vati, Quantum scire licet. Venit ætas omnis in unam THE DEMON OF THE WORLD. A FRAGMENT. 1 How wonderful is Death, Death and his brother Sleep! One pale as yonder wan and horned moon, With lips of lurid blue, The other glowing like the vital morn, When throned on ocean's wave It breathes over the world : Yet both so passing strange and wonderful! Hath then the iron-sceptred Skeleton, 5 10 To the hell dogs that couch beneath his throne Whose outline is as fair as marble clothed 1 A revised fragment of Queen Mab, -of which Poem Shelley's edition 15 will be found in its place among the youthful poems. |