It has been thought worth while to explain these
allusions, because they illustrate the
character
of the Grecian
Mythology, which arose in the Personification of natural phenomena, and
was totally free from those debasing and ludicrous ideas with which,
through Roman and later misunderstanding or perversion, it has been
associated.
Golden Treasury
W. WORDSWORTH.
288.
Music, when soft voices die,
Vibrates in the memory--
Odours, when sweet violets sicken,
Live within the sense they quicken.
Rose leaves, when the rose is dead,
Are heap'd for the beloved's bed;
And so thy thoughts, when Thou art gone,
Love itself shall slumber on.
P.B. SHELLEY.
PALGRAVE'S NOTES.
Poem 2.
_Rouse Memnon's mother_: Awaken the Dawn from the dark Earth and the
clouds where she is resting. Aurora in the old mythology is mother of
Memnon (the East), and wife of Tithonus (the appearances of Earth and
Sky during the last hours of Night). She leaves him every morning in
renewed youth, to prepare the way for Phoebus (the Sun), whilst Tithonus
remains in perpetual old age and grayness.
_by Peneus' streams_: Phoebus loved the Nymph Daphne whom he met by the
river Peneus in the vale of Tempe. This legend expressed the attachment
of the Laurel (Daphne) to the Sun, under whose heat the tree both fades
and flourishes.
It has been thought worth while to explain these
allusions, because they illustrate the
character
of the Grecian
Mythology, which arose in the Personification of natural phenomena, and
was totally free from those debasing and ludicrous ideas with which,
through Roman and later misunderstanding or perversion, it has been
associated.
_Amphion's lyre_: He was said to have built the walls of Thebes to the
sound of his music.
_Night like a drunkard reels_: Compare Romeo and Juliet, Act II. Scene
3: "The gray-eyed morn smiles," etc.--It should be added that three
lines, which appeared hopelessly misprinted, have been omitted in this
Poem.
Poem 4.
_Time's chest_: in which he is figuratively supposed to lay up past
treasures. So in Troilus, Act III. Scene 3, "Time hath a wallet at his
back," etc.
Poem 5.
A fine example of the high-wrought and conventional Elizabethan
Pastoralism, which it would be ludicrous to criticise on the ground of
the unshepherdlike or unreal character of some images suggested. Stanza
6 was probably inserted by Izaak Walton.
Poem 9.
This Poem, with 25 and 94, is taken from Davison's "Rhapsody," first
published in 1602. One stanza has been here omitted, in accordance with
the principle noticed in the Preface. Similar omissions occur in 45, 87,
100, 128, 160, 165, 227, 235.
