this you will have seen _Adonais_. Lord Byron--I suppose from modesty on
account of his being mentioned in it--did not say a word of
_Adonais_[13], though he was loud in his praise of _Prometheus_, and
(what you will not agree with him in) censure of _The Cenci_.' (To
Horace Smith, 14 September,) 'I am glad you like _Adonais_, and
particularly that you do not think it metaphysical, which I was afraid
it was. I was resolved to pay some tribute of sympathy to the unhonoured
dead; but I wrote, as usual, with a total ignorance of the effect that I
should produce.' (To Ollier, 25 September.) '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. I
shall write to you probably by next post on the subject of that poem;
and should have sent the promised criticism for the second edition, had
I not mislaid, and in vain sought for, the volume that contains
_Hyperion_.' (To Ollier, 14 November.) 'I am especially curious to hear
the fate of _Adonais_. I confess I should be surprised if that poem were
born to an immortality of oblivion.' (To Ollier, 11 January, 1822.) 'I
was also more than commonly interested in the success of _Adonais_. I do
not mean the sale, but the effect produced; and I should have [been]
glad to have received some communication from you respecting it. I do
not know even whether it has been published, and still less whether it
has been republished with the alterations I sent.' As to the alterations
sent nothing definite is known, but some details bearing on this point
will be found in our Notes, p. 105, &c. (To Gisborne, 10 April) 'I know
what to think of _Adonais_, but what to think of those who confound it
with the many bad poems of the day I know not.' This expression seems to
indicate that Mr. Gisborne had sent Shelley some of the current
criticisms--there were probably but few in all--upon _Adonais_: to this
matter I shall recur further on. (To Gisborne, 18 June.) 'The _Adonais_
I wished to have had a fair chance, both because it is a favourite with