Percy Bysshe Shelley

For thou dost shroud a ruin, and belowThe rotting bones of dead antiquity.

Crammed just as they on earth were crammed,Some sipping punch-some sipping tea;But, as you by their faces see,All silent, and all-damned!Peter Bell, by W. Wordsworth.Ophelia.-What means this, my lord?Hamlet.-Marry, this is Miching Mallecho; it means mischief.~Shakespeare.PROLOGUEPet er Bells, one, two and three,O’er the wide world wandering be.-First, the antenatal Peter,Wrapped in weeds of the same…

Curtained with star-inwoven tapestries,From the broad moonlight of the sky,Fanning the busy dreams from my dim eyes,–Waken me when their Mother, the gray Dawn,Tells them that dreams and that the moon is gone.II.Then I arise, and climbing Heaven’s blue dome,I walk over the mountains and the waves,Leaving my robe upon the ocean foam;My footsteps pave…

Fixed her ethereal eyes,‘I thank thee. Thou hast givenA boon which I will not resign, and taughtA lesson not to be unlearned. I knowThe past, and thence I will essay to gleanA warning for the future, so that manMay profit by his errors and deriveExperience from his folly;For, when the power of imparting joyIs equal…

To the twilight grove,When the moon is rising bright;Oh, I’ll whisper there,In the cool night-air,What I dare not in broad daylight!II.I’ll tell thee a partOf the thoughts that startTo being when thou art nigh;And thy beauty, more brightThan the stars’ soft light,Shall seem as a weft from the sky.III.When the pale moonbeamOn tower and streamSheds…

I.A glorious people vibrated againThe lightning of the nations: LibertyFrom heart to heart, from tower to tower, o’er Spain,Scattering contagious fire into the sky,Gleamed. My soul spurned the chains of its dismay,And in the rapid plumes of songClothed itself, sublime and strong;As a young eagle soars the morning clouds among,Hovering inverse o’er its accustomed prey;Till…

A wind is hovering o’er the mountain’s brow;There is a path on the sea’s azure floor,No keel has ever plough’d that path before;The halcyons brood around the foamless isles;The treacherous Ocean has forsworn its wiles;The merry mariners are bold and free:Say, my heart’s sister, wilt thou sail with me?Our bark is as an albatross, whose…

God raise from England’s graveHer murdered Queen!Pave with swift victoryThe steps of Liberty,Whom Britons own to beImmortal Queen.II.See, she comes throned on high,On swift Eternity!God save the Queen!Millions on millions wait,Firm, rapid, and elate,On her majestic state!God save the Queen!III.She is Thine own pure soulMoulding the mighty whole,–God save the Queen!She is Thine own deep…

Out of the misty eastern cave,–Where, all the long and lone daylight,Thou wovest dreams of joy and fearWhich make thee terrible and dear,–Swift be thy flight!Wrap thy form in a mantle grey,Star-inwrought!Blind with thine hair the eyes of Day;Kiss her until she be wearied out.Then wander o’er city and sea and land,Touching all with thine…

If in this wide world of carePoets could but find the sameWith as little toil as they,Would they ever change their hueAs the light chameleons do,Suiting it to every rayTwenty times a day?Poets are on this cold earth,As chameleons might be,Hidden from their early birthIn a cave beneath the sea;Where light is, chameleons change:Where love…