‘An eagle floating in the golden [glory]’

This fragment is roughly drafted in ink with much cancellation on p. 3 of Nbk 17. Some evidence for its date of composition is provided by its relation to Ode to Naples (no. 343), drafts for which survive nearby in the same nbk. News of the uprising in Naples that began on 1 July had reached the Shelley household by the 16th of the month (Claire Jnl 156). S.’s and Mary's letters reveal their hope for the success of the revolution on 19 and 30 July and 1 September 1820 (L ii 217, 223, 234). S. composed Ode to Naples in the latter half of August, drafting it in Nbk 17 on pp. 4–11 and probably on four pages missing between the present pp. 8 and 9 (see headnote). Because the draft of the ode begins on p. 7, continues in the reverse direction to p. 4, then resumes on p. 8, one can infer that p. 3 was already occupied with An eagle floating in the golden [glory], which must therefore have been composed before mid-August. If the lines were intended to celebrate the Neapolitan revolution, then a date of composition after 16 July (when news of the uprising reached S.) and before mid-August is likely. Lines 405–8 of WA (no. 341), which was written in mid-August, closely resemble the present draft lines, and may even have been adapted from them. That An eagle floating was prompted by the events in Naples is not certain, but in S.’s verse the image of an eagle in the morning sky is not infrequent, and it regularly functions as an emblem of a people awakening to the call of freedom; e.g. in L&C (no. 143) 2182–4, OL (no. 322) 8–9, Hellas 76–93. See also Like an eagle hovering (no. 220) and Mighty Eagle, thou that soarest (no. 136), one version of which is written on p. 139 rev. of the same Nbk 17 as the present fragment.