Percy Bysshe Shelley
First Lines
A gentle story of two lovers young,
A portal as of shadowy adamant
Ah! grasp the dire dagger and couch the fell spear,
Ah! quit me not yet, for the wind whistles shrill,
Ah! sweet is the moonbeam that sleeps on yon fountain,
Amid the desolation of a city,
And like a dying lady, lean and pale,
And said I that all hope was fled,
And where is truth? On tombs? for such to thee
And who feels discord now or sorrow?
Ask not the pallid stranger's woe,
Away! the moor is dark beneath the moon,
Bright wanderer, fair coquette of Heaven,
Chameleons feed on light and air:
Come [Harriet]! sweet is the hour,
Death is here and death is there,
Do you not hear the Aziola cry?
Fierce roars the midnight storm
Follow to the deep wood's weeds,
Good-night? ah! no; the hour is ill
Hopes that swell in youthful breasts,
How sweet it is to sit and read the tales
I am as a spirit who has dwelt
I am drunk with the honey wine
I fear thy kisses, gentle maiden,
I hated thee, fallen tyrant! I did groan
I love thee, Baby! for thine own sweet sake;
I met a traveller from an antique land,
Is it that in some brighter sphere
Is not to-day enough? Why do I peer
It was a bright and cheerful afternoon,
Madonna, wherefore hast thou sent to me
Mine eyes were dim with tears unshed;
My faint spirit was sitting in the light
My spirit like a charmèd bark doth swim
O thou bright Sun! beneath the dark blue line
Oh! what is the gain of restless care,
One sung of thee who left the tale untold,
One word is too often profaned
Orphan Hours, the Year is dead,
Palace-roof of cloudless nights?
Poet of Nature, thou hast wept to know
Silver key of the fountain of tears,
Stern, stern is the voice of fate's fearful command,
Sweet star, which gleaming o'er the darksome scene
Swifter far than summer's flight --
Swiftly walk o'er the western wave,
Tell me, thou Star, whose wings of light
The fiery mountains answer each other;
The fitful alternations of the rain,
The fountains mingle with the river
The keen stars were twinkling,
The pale, the cold, and the moony smile
The rose that drinks the fountain dew
The stars may dissolve, and the fountain of light
The sun is set; the swallows are asleep;
The warm sun is failing, the bleak wind is wailing,
The [living frame which sustains my soul]
There is a warm and gentle atmosphere
There was a little lawny islet
These are two friends whose lives were undivided;
Thy dewy looks sink in my breast;
Thy look of love has power to calm
To me this world's a dreary blank,
To thirst and find no fill, -- to wail and wander
'Twas dead of the night when I sate in my dwelling,
Unfathomable Sea! whose waves are years,
Unrisen splendour of the brightest sun
Wake the serpent not -- lest he
We are as clouds that veil the midnight moon;
When a lover clasps his fairest
When passion's trance is overpast,
When soft winds and sunny skies
Why is it said thou canst not live
Ye gentle visitations of calm thought --
