breath or afflatus of the Universal Mind. It has been 'invoked in song'
throughout the whole later section of this Elegy, from stanza 38
onwards.

1. 2. _My spirits bark is driven_, &c. As was observed with reference to
the preceding stanza, line 9, this phrase does not forecast the author's
death: it only re-emphasises the abnormal illumination of his mind by
the Universal Mind--as if his spirit (like that of Keats) 'had flowed
back to the burning fountain whence it came, a portion of the Eternal'
(stanza 38). Nevertheless, it is very remarkable that this image of 'the
spirit's _bark_,' beaconed by 'the soul of Adonais,' should have been
written so soon before Shelley's death by drowning, which occurred on 8
July, 1822,--but little more than a year after he had completed this
Elegy. Besides this passage, there are in Shelley's writings, both verse
and prose, several other passages noticeable on the same
account--relating to drowning, and sometimes with a strong personal
application; and in various instances he was in imminent danger of this
mode of death before the end came.

11. 3, 4. _Far from the shore, far from the trembling throng Whose sails
were never to the tempest given._ In saying that his spirit's bark is
driven far from the shore, Shelley apparently means that his mind, in
speculation and aspiration, ranges far beyond those mundane and material
interests with which the mass of men are ordinarily concerned. 'The
trembling throng' is, I think, a throng of men: though it might be a
throng of barks, contrasted with 'my spirit's bark.' Their sails 'were
never to the tempest given,' in the sense that they never set forth on a
bold ideal or spiritual adventure, abandoning themselves to the stress
and sway of a spiritual storm.

1. 5. _The massy earth_, &c. As the poet launches forth on his voyage
upon the ocean of mind, the earth behind him seems to gape, and the sky
above him to open: his course however is still held on in darkness--the
arcanum is hardly or not at all revealed.

1. 7. _Whilst burning through the inmost veil_, &c. A star pilots his
course: it is the soul of Adonais, which, being still 'a portion of the
Eternal' (st. 38), is in 'the abode where the Eternal are,' and
testifies to the eternity of mind. In this passage, and in others
towards the conclusion of the poem, we find the nearest approach which
Shelley can furnish to an answer to that question which he asked in
stanza 20--'Shall that alo