Stanza 13 Summary

Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.

Lines 109-117

    And others came . . . Desires and Adorations,
    Winged Persuasions and veil'd Destinies,
    Splendours, and Glooms, and glimmering Incarnations
    Of hopes and fears, and twilight Phantasies;
    And Sorrow, with her family of Sighs,
    And Pleasure, blind with tears, led by the gleam
    Of her own dying smile instead of eyes,
    Came in slow pomp; the moving pomp might seem
Like pageantry of mist on an autumnal stream.

  • Now that the goddesses have finished attending to the body, the rest of deities can come and pay their respects. 
  • Shelley names them: "Desires," "Adorations," "Winged Persuasions," "Destinies," "Splendours," "Glooms," "Incarnations," "Phantasies," "Sorrow," "Sighs," and "Pleasures." They arrive in "pomp," a.k.a. ceremonial display. 
  • Their procession moves like "mist on an autumnal stream." With this simile, the speaker makes it clear for the reader that this procession takes place in the spiritual world, one that is as insubstantial as mist.