616
POEMS WRITTEN IN 1820
DEATH
[Published by Mrs. Shelley, Posthumous Poems, 1824.]
I.
Death is here and death is there,
Death is busy everywhere,
All around, within, beneath,
Above is death—and we are death.
Death is here and death is there,
Death is busy everywhere,
All around, within, beneath,
Above is death—and we are death.
II.
Death has set his mark and seal 5
On all we are and all we feel,
On all we know and all we fear,
••••••••
Death has set his mark and seal 5
On all we are and all we feel,
On all we know and all we fear,
••••••••
III.
First our pleasures die— and then
Our hopes, and then our fears— and when
These are dead, the debt is due, 10
Dust claims dust—and we die too.
First our pleasures die— and then
Our hopes, and then our fears— and when
These are dead, the debt is due, 10
Dust claims dust—and we die too.
IV.
All things that we love and cherish,
Like ourselves must fade and perish;
Such is our rude mortal lot—
Love itself would, did they not. 15
All things that we love and cherish,
Like ourselves must fade and perish;
Such is our rude mortal lot—
Love itself would, did they not. 15
LIBERTY
[Published by Mrs. Shelley, Posthumous Poems, 1824.]
I.
The fiery mountains answer each other;
Their thunderings are echoed from zone to zone;
The tempestuous oceans awake one another,
And the ice-rocks are shaken round Winter's throne[1],
When the clarion of the Typhoon is blown. 5
The fiery mountains answer each other;
Their thunderings are echoed from zone to zone;
The tempestuous oceans awake one another,
And the ice-rocks are shaken round Winter's throne[1],
When the clarion of the Typhoon is blown. 5
II.
From a single cloud the lightening flashes,
Whilst a thousand isles are illumined around,
Earthquake is trampling one city to ashes,
An hundred are shuddering and tottering; the sound
Is bellowing underground. 10
From a single cloud the lightening flashes,
Whilst a thousand isles are illumined around,
Earthquake is trampling one city to ashes,
An hundred are shuddering and tottering; the sound
Is bellowing underground. 10
III.
But keener thy gaze than the lightening's glare,
And swifter thy step than the earthquake's tramp;
Thou deafenest the rage of the ocean; thy stare
Makes blind the volcanoes; the sun's bright lamp
To thine is a fen-fire damp. 15
But keener thy gaze than the lightening's glare,
And swifter thy step than the earthquake's tramp;
Thou deafenest the rage of the ocean; thy stare
Makes blind the volcanoes; the sun's bright lamp
To thine is a fen-fire damp. 15
IV.
From billow and mountain and exhalation
The sunlight is darted through vapour and blast;
From spirit to spirit, from nation to nation,
From city to hamlet thy dawning is cast,—
And tyrants and slaves are like shadows of night 20
In the van of the morning light.
From billow and mountain and exhalation
The sunlight is darted through vapour and blast;
From spirit to spirit, from nation to nation,
From city to hamlet thy dawning is cast,—
And tyrants and slaves are like shadows of night 20
In the van of the morning light.
SUMMER AND WINTER
[Published by Mrs. Shelley in The Keepsake, 1829. Mr. C. W. Frederickson of Brooklyn possesses a transcript in Mrs. Shelley's handwriting.]
It was a bright and cheerful afternoon,
Towards the end of the sunny month of June,
Towards the end of the sunny month of June,
- ↑ Liberty—4 zone edd. 1824. 1839; throne later edd.
