Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.

Descriptive Poems: I. Personal: Great Writers

Shelley

Alexander Hay Japp (1839–1905)

THE ODOR of a rose: light of a star:

The essence of a flame blown on by wind,

That lights and warms all near it, bland and kind,

But aye consumes itself, as though at war

With what supports and feeds it;—from afar

It draws its life, but evermore inclined

To leap into the flame that makes men blind

Who seek the secret of all things that are.

Such wert thou, Shelley, bound for airiest goal:

Interpreter of quintessential things:

Who mounted ever up on eagle-wings

Of phantasy: had aimed at heaven and stole

Promethean fire for men to be as gods,

And dwell in free, aerial abodes.