Rounding out Parker’s “Trio of Lyrical Treats”

from “Percy Bysshe Shelley, Posthumous Poems”, ed. Mary Shelley (1824)

Note

  daedal:
   1. Ingenious and complex in design or function; intricate.
   2. Finely or skillfully made or employed; artistic.
         (after Daedalus, who "gave his name eponymously to any Greek artificer
   and to many Greek contraptions that represented dextrous skill."

(Wikipedia))

This is one of the “many short fragments from Shelley’s MSS. published by Mary Shelley, his wife, in her editions of 1824 and 1839”, says Representative Poetry Online, going on to note that she entitles this poem “A Tale Untold”. To my mind, these short fragments are some of the best, or at least the most enjoyable stuff that Shelley produced, little gems that reveal his genius for imagery without being dragged down to earth by his rather uncertain ear for euphony.¹

Too, I enjoy the “fragment” as a poetic form in its own right - a little snatch of verse that is patently not a complete poem, but which nevertheless stands very well on its own - often so well that an attempt to “complete” it or work it into a larger poem would only dilute its impact. (See Tennyson’s “The Eagle” [Poem #15] for the best example I can think of). All in all, I am distinctly grateful to Mary Shelley for preserving these gems of Shelley’s - Shelley is so widely acclaimed a poet that I always feel that I am missing out on something in my dislike for the majority of his work.

— Martin