Spirit."]

In 'Alastor' he melted with pity over what he felt to be his
own destiny; in 'The Revolt of Islam' (1817) he was "a trumpet
that sings to battle." This, the longest of Shelley's poems
(there are 4176 lines of it, exclusive of certain lyrical
passages), is a versified novel with a more or less coherent
plot, though the mechanism is cumbrous, and any one who expects
from the title a story of some actual rebellion against the
Turks will be disappointed. Its theme, typified by an
introductory vision of an eagle and serpent battling in
mid-sky, is the cosmic struggle between evil and good, or, what
for Shelley is the same thing, between the forces of
established authority and of man's aspiration for liberty, the
eagle standing for the powerful oppressor, and the snake for
the oppressed.

"When round pure hearts a host of hopes assemble
The Snake and Eagle meet--the world's foundations tremble."

This piece of symbolism became a sort of fixed language with
him; "the Snake" was a name by which it amused him to be known
among his friends. The clash of the two opposites is crudely
and narrowly conceived, with no suggestion yet of some more
tremendous force behind both, such as later on was to give
depth to his view of the world conflict. The loves and the
virtues of Laon and Cythna, the gifted beings who overthrow the
tyrant and perish tragically in a counter-revolution, are too
bright against a background that is too black; but even so they
were a good opportunity for displaying the various phases