Mrs.Shelley affirms that it was written under the expectation of speedy death, and under the sense of disappointment, consequent upon the misfortunes of his early life.

This accounts for the somewhat unhealthy vein of sentiment which threads the wilderness of its sublime descriptions.

All that Shelley had observed of natural beauty--in Wales, at Lynton, in Switzerland, upon the eddies of the Reuss, beneath the oak shades of the forest--is presented to us in a series of pictures penetrated with profound emotion.

But the deeper meaning of "Alastor" is to be found, not in the thought of death nor in the poet's recent communings with nature, but in the motto from St.
Augustine placed upon its title page, and in the "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty", composed about a year later.

Enamoured of ideal loveliness, the poet pursues his vision through the universe, vainly hoping to assuage the thirst which has been stimulated in his spirit, and vainly longing for some mortal realization of his love.