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Percy Bysshe Shelley
First Lines


A cat in distress,

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?

As the sunrise to the night,

Ask not the pallid stranger's woe,

At the creation of the Earth

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?

Far, far away, O ye

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 arise from dreams of thee

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,

Listen, listen, Mary mine,

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

O world! O life! O time!

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

Rarely, rarely, comest thou,

Shall we roam, my love,

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 cold earth slept below,

The death knell is ringing

The fiery mountains answer each other;

The fitful alternations of the rain,

The flower that smiles to-day

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 waters are flashing,

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;

We meet not as we parted,

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 --

Ye hasten to the dead! What seek ye there,

Yet look on me -- take not thine eyes away,

 

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