Percy Bysshe Shelley: The Aziola

Updated May 6, 2020 | Infoplease Staff
by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Sonnet: Political Greatness
A Lament

The Aziola

Published by Mrs. Shelley in "The Keepsake", 1829.

1.
'Do you not hear the Aziola cry?
Methinks she must be nigh,'
Said Mary, as we sate
In dusk, ere stars were lit, or candles brought;
And I, who thought
This Aziola was some tedious woman,
Asked, 'Who is Aziola?' How elate
I felt to know that it was nothing human,
No mockery of myself to fear or hate:
And Mary saw my soul,
And laughed, and said, 'Disquiet yourself not;
'Tis nothing but a little downy owl.'
2.
Sad Aziola! many an eventide
Thy music I had heard
By wood and stream, meadow and mountain-side,
And fields and marshes wide,—
Such as nor voice, nor lute, nor wind, nor bird,
The soul ever stirred;
Unlike and far sweeter than them all.
Sad Aziola! from that moment I
Loved thee and thy sad cry.
NOTES:
_4 ere stars]ere the stars editions 1839.
_9 or]and editions 1839.
_19 them]they editions 1839.
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