Percy Shelley's "Adonais"

"Language can posit and language can mean, but language cannot 

posit meaning."  

What a pretentious statement, but Percy Shelley's poetry has led Paul de Man to this non-sensical literary-critical peroration.  So, let us leave de Man behind and venture into one of the greatest poet's greatest poems - "Adonais".  The group of Spenserian stanzas stands as one of the great monuments in the use of the English language.  The tight control and fluid mastery Shelley demonstrates in this lamentation cannot be beat with a stick.    Read and enjoy. 

The One remains, the many change and pass;	460
Heaven’s light forever shines, Earth’s shadows fly;
Life, like a dome of many-coloured glass,
Stains the white radiance of Eternity,
Until Death tramples it to fragments.—Die,
If thou wouldst be with that which thou dost seek!	465
Follow where all is fled!—Rome’s azure sky,
Flowers, ruins, statues, music, words are weak
The glory they transfuse with fitting truth to speak.

Link to entire poem found here