The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Part 144

[Published by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870.]

I faint, I perish with my love! I grow Frail as a cloud whose [splendours] pale Under the evening's ever-changing glow: I die like mist upon the gale, And like a wave under the calm I fail. _5

FRAGMENT: THE LADY OF THE SOUTH.

[Published by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870.]

Faint with love, the Lady of the South Lay in the paradise of Lebanon Under a heaven of cedar boughs: the drouth Of love was on her lips; the light was gone Out of her eyes-- _5

FRAGMENT: ZEPHYRUS THE AWAKENER.

[Published by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870.]

Come, thou awakener of the spirit's ocean, Zephyr, whom to thy cloud or cave No thought can trace! speed with thy gentle motion!

FRAGMENT: RAIN.

[Published by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870.]

The gentleness of rain was in the wind.

FRAGMENT: 'WHEN SOFT WINDS AND SUNNY SKIES'.

[Published by Mrs. Sh.e.l.ley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.]

When soft winds and sunny skies With the green earth harmonize, And the young and dewy dawn, Bold as an unhunted fawn, Up the windless heaven is gone,-- _5 Laugh--for ambushed in the day,-- Clouds and whirlwinds watch their prey.

FRAGMENT: 'AND THAT I WALK THUS PROUDLY CROWNED'.

[Published by Mrs. Sh.e.l.ley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.]

And that I walk thus proudly crowned withal Is that 'tis my distinction; if I fall, I shall not weep out of the vital day, To-morrow dust, nor wear a dull decay.

NOTE: _2 'Tis that is or In that is cj. A.C. Bradley.

FRAGMENT: 'THE RUDE WIND IS SINGING'.

[Published by Mrs. Sh.e.l.ley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.]

The rude wind is singing The dirge of the music dead; The cold worms are clinging Where kisses were lately fed.

FRAGMENT: 'GREAT SPIRIT'.

[Published by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.", 1870.]

Great Spirit whom the sea of boundless thought Nurtures within its unimagined caves, In which thou sittest sole, as in my mind, Giving a voice to its mysterious waves--

FRAGMENT: 'O THOU IMMORTAL DEITY'.

[Published by Mrs. Sh.e.l.ley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition.]

O thou immortal deity Whose throne is in the depth of human thought, I do adjure thy power and thee By all that man may be, by all that he is not, By all that he has been and yet must be! _5

FRAGMENT: THE FALSE LAUREL AND THE TRUE.

[Published by Mrs. Sh.e.l.ley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.]

'What art thou, Presumptuous, who profanest The wreath to mighty poets only due, Even whilst like a forgotten moon thou wanest?

Touch not those leaves which for the eternal few Who wander o'er the Paradise of fame, _5 In sacred dedication ever grew: One of the crowd thou art without a name.'

'Ah, friend, 'tis the false laurel that I wear; Bright though it seem, it is not the same As that which bound Milton's immortal hair; _10 Its dew is poison; and the hopes that quicken Under its chilling shade, though seeming fair, Are flowers which die almost before they sicken.'

FRAGMENT: MAY THE LIMNER.

[This and the three following Fragments were edited from ma.n.u.script Sh.e.l.ley D1 at the Bodleian Library and published by Mr. C.D. Loc.o.c.k, "Examination", etc., Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1903. They are printed here as belonging probably to the year 1821.]

When May is painting with her colours gay The landscape sketched by April her sweet twin...