But Vergil speaks of men who did not adequately appreciate their own happiness; Shelley (apparently) of others who did so. He seems to intimate that the poetical temperament is a happy one, in the case of those poets who, unconcerned with the greatest ideas and the most arduous schemes of work, pour forth their 'native wood-notes wild.' I think it possible however that Shelley intended, his phrase to be accepted with the same meaning as Vergil's--'happier they, supposing they had known their happiness.' In that case, the only reason implied why these minor poets were the happier is that their works have endured the longer. 11. 4, 5. _Whose tapers yet burn through that night of time In which suns perished._ Shelley here appears to say that the minor poets have left works which survive, while some of the works of the very greatest poets have disappeared: as, for instance, his own lyrical models in _Adonais_, Bion and Moschus, are still known by their writings, while many of the master-pieces of Aeschylus and Sophocles are lost. Some _tapers_ continue to burn; while some _suns_ have perished. 11. 5-7. _Others more sublime, Struck by the envious wrath of man or God, Have sunk, extinct in their refulgent prime._ These others include Keats (Adonais) himself, to whom the phrase, 'struck by the envious wrath of man,' may be understood as more peculiarly appropriated. And generally the 'others' may be regarded as nearly identical with 'the inheritors of unfulfilled renown' who appear (some of them pointed out by name) in stanza 45. The word God is printed in the Pisan edition with a capital letter: it may be questioned whether Shelley meant to indicate anything more definite than 'some higher power--Fate.' 11. 8, 9. _And some yet live, treading the thorny road Which leads, through toil and hate, to Fame's serene abode._ Byron must be supposed to be the foremost among these; also Wordsworth and Coleridge; and doubtless Shelley himself should not he omitted. +Stanza 6,+ 1. 2. _The nursling of thy widowhood._ As to this expression see p. 51. I was there speaking only of the Muse Urania; but the observations are equally applicable to Aphrodite Urania, and I am unable to carry the argument any further. 11. 3, 4. _Like a pale flower by some sad maiden cherished, And fed with true love tears instead of dew._ It seems sufficiently clear that Shelley is here glancing at a leading incident in Keats's poem of _Isabella, or the Pot of Basil_, founded upon a story in Boccaccio's _Decameron_. Isabella unburies her murdered lover Lorenzo; preserves his head in a pot of basil; and (as expressed in st. 52 of the poem) 'Hung over her sweet basil evermore, And moistened it with tears unto the core.' I give Shelley's words 'true love tears' as they appear in the Pisan edition: 'true-love tears' might be preferable.