"With ever-changing notes it floats along, / Till on my passive soul there seemed to creep / A melody, like waves on wrinkled sands that leap"
— Shelley, Percy Bysshe (1792-1822)
Work Title
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for C. and J. Ollier
Date
1817, 1818
Metaphor
"With ever-changing notes it floats along, / Till on my passive soul there seemed to creep / A melody, like waves on wrinkled sands that leap"
Metaphor in Context
And is this death?--The pyre has disappeared,
The Pestilence, the Tyrant, and the throng;
The flames grow silent--slowly there is heard
The music of a breath-suspending song,
Which, like the kiss of love when life is young,
Steeps the faint eyes in darkness sweet and deep;
With ever-changing notes it floats along,
Till on my passive soul there seemed to creep
A melody, like waves on wrinkled sands that leap.
(XII, 4594-602)
The Pestilence, the Tyrant, and the throng;
The flames grow silent--slowly there is heard
The music of a breath-suspending song,
Which, like the kiss of love when life is young,
Steeps the faint eyes in darkness sweet and deep;
With ever-changing notes it floats along,
Till on my passive soul there seemed to creep
A melody, like waves on wrinkled sands that leap.
(XII, 4594-602)
Categories
Provenance
Reading Reisner, Thomas A. "Tablua Rasa: Shelley's Metaphor of Mind." Ariel IV.2 (197): 90-102. p. 95.
Citation
The Revolt of Islam. A Poem in Twelve Cantos. (London: C. and J. Ollier, 1817) <Link to 1829 edition in Google Books>.
Originally published as Laon and Cythna. Text from the University of Adelaide's "eBooks@Adelaide." http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/s/shelley/percy_bysshe/
Originally published as Laon and Cythna. Text from the University of Adelaide's "eBooks@Adelaide." http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/s/shelley/percy_bysshe/
Date of Entry
10/03/2006
