DAKRTSI DIOISO POTMON ‘APOTMON. Oh! there are spirits of the air, And genii of the evening breeze, And gentle ghosts, with eyes as fair As star-beams among twilight trees:– Such lovely ministers to meet 5 Oft hast thou turned from men thy lonely feet. With mountain winds, and babbling springs, And moonlight seas, that are […]

LECHLADE, GLOUCESTERSHIRE. The wind has swept from the wide atmosphere Each vapour that obscured the sunset’s ray; And pallid Evening twines its beaming hair In duskier braids around the languid eyes of Day: Silence and Twilight, unbeloved of men, Creep hand in hand from yon obscurest glen. They breathe their spells towards the departing day, […]

There late was One within whose subtle being, As light and wind within some delicate cloud That fades amid the blue noon’s burning sky, Genius and death contended. None may know The sweetness of the joy which made his breath Fail, like the trances of the summer air, When, with the Lady of his love, […]

1. The awful shadow of some unseen Power Floats though unseen among us,–visiting This various world with as inconstant wing As summer winds that creep from flower to flower,– Like moonbeams that behind some piny mountain shower, 5 It visits with inconstant glance Each human heart and countenance; Like hues and harmonies of evening,– Like […]

1. A pale Dream came to a Lady fair, And said, A boon, a boon, I pray! I know the secrets of the air, And things are lost in the glare of day, Which I can make the sleeping see, 5 If they will put their trust in me. 2. And thou shalt know of […]

A shovel of his ashes took From the hearth’s obscurest nook, Muttering mysteries as she went. Helen and Henry knew that Granny Was as much afraid of Ghosts as any, 5 And so they followed hard– But Helen clung to her brother’s arm, And her own spasm made her shake.

[Published by Garnett, “Relics of Shelley”, 1862.] Dear home, thou scene of earliest hopes and joys, The least of which wronged Memory ever makes Bitterer than all thine unremembered tears.

There is a voice, not understood by all, Sent from these desert-caves. It is the roar Of the rent ice-cliff which the sunbeams call, Plunging into the vale–it is the blast Descending on the pines–the torrents pour…

LINES WRITTEN IN THE VALE OF CHAMOUNI. 1. The everlasting universe of things Flows through the mind, and rolls its rapid waves, Now dark–now glittering–now reflecting gloom– Now lending splendour, where from secret springs The source of human thought its tribute brings 5 Of waters,–with a sound but half its own, Such as a feeble […]

Silver key of the fountain of tears, Where the spirit drinks till the brain is wild; Softest grave of a thousand fears, Where their mother, Care, like a drowsy child, Is laid asleep in flowers.

My spirit like a charmed bark doth swim Upon the liquid waves of thy sweet singing, Far far away into the regions dim Of rapture–as a boat, with swift sails winging Its way adown some many-winding river, Speeds through dark forests o’er the waters swinging…

1. The rose that drinks the fountain dew In the pleasant air of noon, Grows pale and blue with altered hue– In the gaze of the nightly moon; For the planet of frost, so cold and bright, Makes it wan with her borrowed light. 2. Such is my heart–roses are fair, And that at best […]

1. Thus to be lost and thus to sink and die, Perchance were death indeed!–Constantia, turn! In thy dark eyes a power like light doth lie, Even though the sounds which were thy voice, which burn Between thy lips, are laid to sleep; 5 Within thy breath, and on thy hair, like odour, it is […]

1. The billows on the beach are leaping around it, The bark is weak and frail, The sea looks black, and the clouds that bound it Darkly strew the gale. Come with me, thou delightful child, Come with me, though the wave is wild, 5 And the winds are loose, we must not stay, Or […]

1. Thy country’s curse is on thee, darkest crest Of that foul, knotted, many-headed worm Which rends our Mother’s bosom–Priestly Pest! Masked Resurrection of a buried Form! 2. Thy country’s curse is on thee! Justice sold, 5 Truth trampled, Nature’s landmarks overthrown, And heaps of fraud-accumulated gold, Plead, loud as thunder, at Destruction’s throne. 3. […]

SUPPOSED TO BE ADDRESSED TO WILLIAM GODWIN. Mighty eagle! thou that soarest O’er the misty mountain forest, And amid the light of morning Like a cloud of glory hiest, And when night descends defiest The embattled tempests’ warning!

No, Music, thou art not the ‘food of Love.’ Unless Love feeds upon its own sweet self, Till it becomes all Music murmurs of.

1. They die–the dead return not–Misery Sits near an open grave and calls them over, A Youth with hoary hair and haggard eye– They are the names of kindred, friend and lover, Which he so feebly calls–they all are gone– Fond wretch, all dead! those vacant names alone, This most familiar scene, my pain– These […]

1. That time is dead for ever, child! Drowned, frozen, dead for ever! We look on the past And stare aghast At the spectres wailing, pale and ghast, Of hopes which thou and I beguiled To death on life’s dark river. 2. The stream we gazed on then rolled by; Its waves are unreturning; But […]

Her voice did quiver as we parted, Yet knew I not that heart was broken From which it came, and I departed Heeding not the words then spoken. Misery–O Misery, This world is all too wide for thee.