Adonais

Adonais, the poem +

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The title of this song is Adonais and contains liberal references to that poem. On first reading of these lyrics, it is hard to believe that they are not a verbatim quote from Shelley. However, this is probably the best example of Robert Smith’s ability to select inspiration from throughout the author’s oeuvre and add his magic to create a powerful new form.

 

References have been found  to:

Adonais, Prometheus Unbound, Queen Mab and a Time but there may be others I have missed. Please email if you find more.

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Adonais

BY PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

 

XXVI

       I am chain'd to Time, and cannot thence depart!

XXXIX

       Peace, peace! he is not dead, he doth not sleep,

       He hath awaken'd from the dream of life;

       'Tis we, who lost in stormy visions, keep

       With phantoms an unprofitable strife,

       And in mad trance, strike with our spirit's knife

       Invulnerable nothings. We decay

       Like corpses in a charnel; fear and grief

       Convulse us and consume us day by day,

       And cold hopes swarm like worms within our living clay.

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XL

       He is secure and now can never mourn 

       A heart grown cold, a head grown grey in vain

      

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LIII

       They have departed; thou shouldst now depart!

       A light is pass'd from the revolving year,

       And man, and woman; and what still is dear

       Attracts to crush, repels to make thee wither.

       The soft sky smiles, the low wind whispers near:

       'Tis Adonais calls! oh, hasten thither,

No more let Life divide what Death can join together.

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XL

       He has outsoar'd the shadow of our night;

       Envy and calumny and hate and pain,

       And that unrest which men miscall delight,

       Can touch him not and torture not again;

 

XLI

       He lives, he wakes—'tis Death is dead, not he;

       Mourn not for Adonais. Thou young Dawn,

       Turn all thy dew to splendour, for from thee
 

       The spirit thou lamentest is not gone;

       [Ye caverns and ye forests, cease to moan!

       Cease, ye faint flowers and fountains, and thou Air,

       Which like a mourning veil thy scarf hadst thrown

       O'er the abandon'd Earth, now leave it bare

Even to the joyous stars which smile on its despair!

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Time

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Unfathomable Sea! whose waves are years,

Ocean of Time, whose waters of deep woe

Are brackish with the salt of human tears!

Thou shoreless flood, which in thy ebb and flow

Claspest the limits of mortality!

 

And sick of prey, yet howling on for more,

Vomitest thy wrecks on its inhospitable shore;
 

Treacherous in calm, and terrible in storm,

Who shall put forth on thee,

Unfathomable Sea?
 

 

 

Prometheus Unbound

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Note that Prometheus’ chains are broken, which is reflected in the song’s 6th verse.

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No change, no pause, no hope! Yet I endure.

I ask the Earth, have not the mountains felt?

I ask yon Heaven, the all-beholding Sun,

Has it not seen? The Sea, in storm or calm,
 

Heaven's ever-changing Shadow, spread below,

Have its deaf waves not heard my agony?

Ah me! alas, pain, pain ever, for ever!
 

 

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Queen Mab

 

The day-stars of their age; -Soul of Ianthe!

Awake! arise!’

Sudden arose

Ianthe’s Soul; it stood

All beautiful in naked purity,

The perfect semblance of its bodily frame;

Instinct with inexpressible beauty and grace -

Each stain of earthliness

Had passed away -it reassumed

Its native dignity and stood

Immortal amid ruin.

Upon the couch the body lay,

Wrapt in the depth of slumber;

Its features were fixed and meaningless,

Yet animal life was there,

And every organ yet performed

Its natural functions; ‘twas a sight

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