Explore "Shelley (in Praise of Poets)" by Henry Van Dyke on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Knight-errant of the Never-ending / Quest, / And Minstrel of the Unfulfilled Desire; / For ever tuning thy frail earthly lyre / To some unearthly music, and possessed / With painful passionate longing to invest / The golden dream of Love's immortal fire / In mortal robes of beautiful attire, / And fold perfection to thy throbbing breast!
What wonder, Shelley, if the restless wave / Should claim thee and the leaping flame con- / sume / Thy drifted form on Viareggio's beach? / Fate to thy body gave a fitting grave, / And bade thy soul ride on with fiery plume, / Thy wild song ring in ocean's yearning / speech!