'The Adonais I wished to have had a fair chance, both because it is a favourite with me, and on account of the memory of Keatswho was a poet of great genius, let the classic party say what it will.' Earlier than the latest of these extracts Shelley had sent to Mr. Severn a copy of Adonais, along with a letter which I append.

Adonais is the first writing by Shelley which has been included in the Clarendon Press Series.

Adonais is a wonderful threnody, or a song of grief, over the death of the poet Keats.

Dr. Furnivall has suggested to me that Adonais is 'Shelley's variant of Adonias, the women's yearly mourning for Adonis.'

Adonais is a composition which has retorted beforehand upon its actual or possible detractors.

" Adonais is a lament for the early death of Keats, and it stands second in the language among elegiac poems, ranking next to Milton's Lycidas.

All these 'lament Adonais' (stanza 14): they are such emotional or abstract beings as 'he had loved, and moulded into thought from shape and hue and odour and sweet sound.'

'The Adonais, in spite of its mysticism, is the least imperfect of my compositions; and, as the image of my regret and honour for poor Keats, I wish it to be so.