Fragment On Keats Percy Bysshe Shelley

[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition—ED.]

ON KEATS, WHO DESIRED THAT ON HIS TOMB SHOULD BE INSCRIBED—

'Here lieth One whose name was writ on water.
But, ere the breath that could erase it blew,
Death, in remorse for that fell slaughter,
Death, the immortalizing winter, flew
Athwart the stream,—and time's printless torrent grew _5
A scroll of crystal, blazoning the name
Of Adonais!
***