POEMS WRITTEN FROM 1814 TO 1816. STANZA, WRITTEN AT BRACKNELL.' THY dewy looks sink in my breast; I could have borne my wayward lot: TO MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT GODWIN.2 I. MINE eyes were dim with tears unshed; To meet thy looks-I could not know 1 This stanza was written in March 1814, while Shelley was staying at the house of Mrs. Boinville. See Memoir, in vol. i, pages xxx and xxxi.-ED. 2 This poem belongs to June 1814.-ED. How anxiously they sought to shine II. To sit and curb the soul's mute rage Of fettered grief that dares not groan, III. Whilst thou alone, then not regarded, IV. Upon my heart thy accents sweet Of peace and pity fell like dew On flowers half dead;-thy lips did meet Mine tremblingly; thy dark eyes threw Their soft persuasion on my brain, Charming away its dream of pain. V. We are not happy, sweet! our state VI. Gentle and good and mild thou art, Aught but thyself, or turn thine heart. TO YET look on me-take not thine eyes away, Which feed upon the love within mine own, Which is indeed but the reflected ray Of thine own beauty from my spirit thrown. Yet speak to me-thy voice is as the tone Of my heart's echo, and I think I hear That thou yet lovest me; yet thou alone Like one before a mirror, without care Of aught but thine own features, imaged there; And yet I wear out life in watching thee; A toil so sweet at times, and thou indeed Art kind when I am sick, and pity me. LINES.1 I. THE cold earth slept below, Above the cold sky shone; And all around, with a chilling sound, From caves of ice and fields of snow, The breath of night like death did flow Beneath the sinking moon. Though usually assigned to November 1815, these lines probably belong to November 1816, the month in which Harriett Shelley drowned herself. If so, "raven hair" is used as a disguise, Harriett's hair having been light brown.-ED. II. The wintry hedge was black, The green grass was not seen, The birds did rest on the bare thorn's breast, Whose roots, beside the pathway track, Had bound their folds o'er many a crack, Which the frost had made between. III. Thine eyes glowed in the glare Of the moon's dying light; As a fenfire's beam on a sluggish stream IV. The moon made thy lips pale, beloved― The night did shed on thy dear head Its frozen dew, and thou didst lie THE SUNSET. THERE late was One within whose subtle being, He walked along the pathway of a field Which to the east a hoar wood shadowed o'er, But to the west was open to the sky. There now the sun had sunk, but lines of gold That night the youth and lady mingled lay In love and sleep-but when the morning came The lady found her lover dead and cold. Let none believe that God in mercy gave That stroke. wild, The lady died not, nor grew But year by year lived on-in truth I think Dissolve away in wisdom-working grief;— 1 This line is probably corrupt in two particulars. I believe the true reading to be sun-rise for sun and wake for walk; but I know of no authority for making the changes.-Ed. |