Page:The complete poetical works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, including materials never before printed in any edition of the poems.djvu/689

When for a moment thou art not forbidden
To live within the life which thou bestowest
And leaving noblest things vacant and chidden, 30
Cold as a corpse after the spirit's flight,
Blank as the sun after the birth of night.

V
In winds, and trees, and streams, and all things common,
In music and the sweet unconscious tone
Of animals, and voices which are human, 35
Meant to express some feelings of their own;
In the soft motions and rare smile of woman,
In flowers and leaves, and in the grass fresh^[1]-shown,
Or dying in the autumn, I the most
Adore thee present or lament thee lost. 40

VI
And thus I went lamenting, when I saw
A plant upon the river's margin lie,
Like one who loved beyond his nature's law,
And in despair had cast him down to die;
Its leaves, which had outlived the frost, the thaw 45
Had blighted; like^[2] a heart which hatred's eye
Can blast not, but which pity kills; the dew
Lay on its spotted leaves like tears too true.

VII
The Heavens had wept upon it, but the Earth
Had crushed it on her unmaternal breast 50
········
VIII
I bore it to my chamber, and I planted
It in a vase full of the lightest mould;
The winter beams which out of Heaven slanted
Fell through the window-panes, disrobed of cold,
Upon its leaves and flowers; the stars which panted 55
In evening for the Day, whose car has rolled
Over the horizon's wave, with looks of light
Smiled on it from the threshold of the night.

IX
The mitigated influences of air
And light revived the plant, and from it grew 60
Strong leaves and tendrils, and its flowers fair,
Full as a cup with the vine's burning dew,
O'erflowed with golden colours; an atmosphere
Of vital warmth enfolded it anew,
And every impulse sent to every part 65
The unbeheld pulsations of its heart.

1. 38 grass fresh Boscombe MS.; fresh grass ed. 1824.
2. 46 like Boscombe MS.; as ed. 1824.