Selected Poems and Prose

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

  Virtue’s most sweet reward?

  5Beneath whose looks did my reviving soul

  Riper in truth and virtuous daring grow?

  Whose eyes have I gazed fondly on,

  And loved mankind the more?

  Harriet! on thine:—thou wert my purer mind;

  10Thou wert the inspiration of my song;

  Thine are these early wilding flowers,

  Though garlanded by me.

  Then press unto thy breast this pledge of love;

  And know, though time may change and years may roll,

  15 Each flowret gathered in my heart

  It consecrates to thine.

  Queen Mab

  I

  How wonderful is Death,

  Death, and his brother Sleep!

  One, pale as yonder waning moon

  With lips of lurid blue;

  5 The other, rosy as the morn

  When throned on ocean’s wave

  It blushes o’er the world:

  Yet both so passing wonderful!

  Hath then the gloomy Power

  10Whose reign is in the tainted sepulchres

  Seized on her sinless soul?

  Must then that peerless form

  Which love and admiration cannot view

  Without a beating heart, those azure veins

  15Which steal like streams along a field of snow,

  That lovely outline, which is fair

  As breathing marble, perish?

  Must putrefaction’s breath

  Leave nothing of this heavenly sight

  20 But loathsomeness and ruin?

  Spare nothing but a gloomy theme,

  On which the lightest heart might moralize?

  Or is it only a sweet slumber

  Stealing o’er sensation,

  25 Which the breath of roseate morning

  Chaseth into darkness?

  Will Ianthe wake again,

  And give that faithful bosom joy

  Whose sleepless spirit waits to catch

  30 Light, life and rapture from her smile?

  Yes! she will wake again,

  Although her glowing limbs are motionless,

  And silent those sweet lips,

  Once breathing eloquence,

  35 That might have soothed a tyger’s rage,

  Or thawed the cold heart of a conqueror.

  Her dewy eyes are closed,

  And on their lids, whose texture fine

  Scarce hides the dark blue orbs beneath,

  40 The baby Sleep is pillowed:

  Her golden tresses shade

  The bosom’s stainless pride,

  Curling like tendrils of the parasite

  Around a marble column.

  45 Hark! whence that rushing sound?

  ’Tis like the wondrous strain

  That round a lonely ruin swells,

  Which, wandering on the echoing shore,

  The enthusiast hears at evening:

  50 ’Tis softer than the west wind’s sigh;

  ’Tis wilder than the unmeasured notes

  Of that strange lyre whose strings

  The genii of the breezes sweep:

  Those lines of rainbow light

  55 Are like the moonbeams when they fall

  Through some cathedral window, but the teints

  Are such as may not find

  Comparison on earth.

  Behold the chariot of the Fairy Queen!

  60Celestial coursers paw the unyielding air;

  Their filmy pennons at her word they furl,

  And stop obedient to the reins of light:

  These the Queen of spells drew in,

  She spread a charm around the spot,

  65And leaning graceful from the etherial car,

  Long did she gaze, and silently,

  Upon the slumbering maid.

  Oh! not the visioned poet in his dreams,

  When silvery clouds float through the wildered brain,

  70When every sight of lovely, wild and grand

  Astonishes, enraptures, elevates,

  When fancy at a glance combines

  The wondrous and the beautiful,—

  So bright, so fair, so wild a shape

  75 Hath ever yet beheld,

  As that which reined the coursers of the air,

  And poured the magic of her gaze

  Upon the maiden’s sleep.

  The broad and yellow moon

  80 Shone dimly through her form—

  That form of faultless symmetry;

  The pearly and pellucid car

  Moved not the moonlight’s line:

  ’Twas not an earthly pageant:

  85 Those who had looked upon the sight,

  Passing all human glory,

  Saw not the yellow moon,

  Saw not the mortal scene,

  Heard not the night-wind’s rush,

  90 Heard not an earthly sound,

  Saw but the fairy pageant,

  Heard but the heavenly strains

  That filled the lonely dwelling.

  The Fairy’s frame was slight, yon fibrous cloud,

  95That catches but the palest tinge of even,

  And which the straining eye can hardly seize

  When melting into eastern twilight’s shadow,

  Were scarce so thin, so slight; but the fair star

  That gems the glittering coronet of morn,

  100Sheds not a light so mild, so powerful,

  As that which, bursting from the Fairy’s form,

  Spread a purpureal halo round the scene,

  Yet with an undulating motion,

  Swayed to her outline gracefully.

  105 From her celestial car

  The Fairy Queen descended,

  And thrice she waved her wand

  Circled with wreaths of amaranth:

  Her thin and misty form

  110 Moved with the moving air,

  And the clear silver tones,

  As thus she spoke, were such

  As are unheard by all but gifted ear.

  FAIRY

  Stars! Your balmiest influence shed!

  115 Elements! Your wrath suspend!

  Sleep, Ocean, in the rocky bounds

  That circle thy domain!

  Let not a breath be seen to stir

  Around yon grass-grown ruin’s height,

  120 Let even the restless gossamer

  Sleep on the moveless air!

  Soul of Ianthe! thou,

  Judged alone worthy of the envied boon,

  That waits the good and the sincere; that waits

  125Those who have struggled, and with resolute will

  Vanquished earth’s pride and meanness, burst the chains,

  The icy chains of custom, and have shone

  The day-stars of their age;—Soul of Ianthe!

  Awake! arise!

  130 Sudden arose

  Ianthe’s Soul; it stood

  All beautiful in naked purity,

  The perfect semblance of its bodily frame,

  Instinct with inexpressible beauty and grace.

  135 Each stain of earthliness

  Had passed away, it reassumed

  Its native dignity, and stood

  Immortal amid ruin.

  Upon the couch the body lay

  140 Wrapt in the depth of slumber:

  Its features were fixed and meaningless,

  Yet animal life was there,

  And every organ yet performed

  Its natural functions: ’twas a sight

  145Of wonder to behold the body and soul.

  The self-same lineaments, the same

  Marks of identity were there:

  Yet, oh, how different! One aspires to Heaven,

  Pants for its sempiternal heritage,

  150And ever changing, ever rising still,

  Wantons in endless being.

  The other, for a time the unwilling sport

  Of circumstance and passion
, struggles on;

  Fleets through its sad duration rapidly;

  155Then like an useless and worn-out machine,

  Rots, perishes, and passes.

  FAIRY

  Spirit! who hast dived so deep;

  Spirit! who hast soared so high;

  Thou the fearless, thou the mild,

  160 Accept the boon thy worth hath earned,

  Ascend the car with me!

  SPIRIT

  Do I dream? is this new feeling

  But a visioned ghost of slumber?

  If indeed I am a soul,

  165 A free, a disembodied soul,

  Speak again to me.

  FAIRY

  I am the Fairy MAB: to me ’tis given

  The wonders of the human world to keep:

  The secrets of the immeasurable past,

  170In the unfailing consciences of men,

  Those stern, unflattering chroniclers, I find:

  The future, from the causes which arise

  In each event, I gather: not the sting

  Which retributive memory implants

  175In the hard bosom of the selfish man;

  Nor that extatic and exulting throb

  Which virtue’s votary feels when he sums up

  The thoughts and actions of a well-spent day,

  Are unforeseen, unregistered by me:

  180And it is yet permitted me, to rend

  The veil of mortal frailty, that the spirit

  Clothed in its changeless purity, may know

  How soonest to accomplish the great end

  For which it hath its being, and may taste

  185That peace, which in the end all life will share.

  This is the meed of virtue; happy Soul,

  Ascend the car with me!

  The chains of earth’s immurement

  Fell from Ianthe’s spirit;

  190They shrank and brake like bandages of straw

  Beneath a wakened giant’s strength.

  She knew her glorious change,

  And felt in apprehension uncontrolled

  New raptures opening round:

  195 Each day-dream of her mortal life,

  Each frenzied vision of the slumbers

  That closed each well-spent day,

  Seemed now to meet reality.

  The Fairy and the Soul proceeded;

  200 The silver clouds disparted;

  And as the car of magic they ascended,

  Again the speechless music swelled,

  Again the coursers of the air

  Unfurled their azure pennons, and the Queen

  205 Shaking the beamy reins

  Bade them pursue their way.

  The magic car moved on.

  The night was fair, and countless stars

  Studded heaven’s dark blue vault,—

  210 Just o’er the eastern wave

  Peeped the first faint smile of morn:—

  The magic car moved on—

  From the celestial hoofs

  The atmosphere in flaming sparkles flew,

  215 And where the burning wheels

  Eddied above the mountain’s loftiest peak,

  Was traced a line of lightning.

  Now it flew far above a rock,

  The utmost verge of earth,

  220 The rival of the Andes, whose dark brow

  Lowered o’er the silver sea.

  Far, far below the chariot’s path,

  Calm as a slumbering babe,

  Tremendous Ocean lay.

  225 The mirror of its stillness shewed

  The pale and waning stars,

  The chariot’s fiery track,

  And the grey light of morn

  Tinging those fleecy clouds

  230 That canopied the dawn.

  Seemed it, that the chariot’s way

  Lay through the midst of an immense concave,

  Radiant with million constellations, tinged

  With shades of infinite colour,

  235 And semicircled with a belt

  Flashing incessant meteors.

  The magic car moved on.

  As they approached their goal

  The coursers seemed to gather speed;

  240The sea no longer was distinguished; earth

  Appeared a vast and shadowy sphere;

  The sun’s unclouded orb

  Rolled through the black concave;

  Its rays of rapid light

  245Parted around the chariot’s swifter course,

  And fell, like ocean’s feathery spray

  Dashed from the boiling surge

  Before a vessel’s prow.

  The magic car moved on.

  250 Earth’s distant orb appeared

  The smallest light that twinkles in the heaven;

  Whilst round the chariot’s way

  Innumerable systems rolled,

  And countless spheres diffused

  255 An ever-varying glory.

  It was a sight of wonder: some

  Were horned like the crescent moon;

  Some shed a mild and silver beam

  Like Hesperus o’er the western sea;

  260 Some dash’d athwart with trains of flame,

  Like worlds to death and ruin driven;

  Some shone like suns, and as the chariot passed,

  Eclipsed all other light.

  Spirit of Nature! here!

  265 In this interminable wilderness

  Of worlds, at whose immensity

  Even soaring fancy staggers,

  Here is thy fitting temple.

  Yet not the lightest leaf

  270 That quivers to the passing breeze

  Is less instinct with thee:

  Yet not the meanest worm

  That lurks in graves and fattens on the dead

  Less shares thy eternal breath.

  275 Spirit of Nature! thou!

  Imperishable as this scene,

  Here is thy fitting temple.

  II

  If solitude hath ever led thy steps

  To the wild ocean’s echoing shore,

  And thou hast lingered there,

  Until the sun’s broad orb

  5 Seemed resting on the burnished wave,

  Thou must have marked the lines

  Of purple gold, that motionless

  Hung o’er the sinking sphere:

  Thou must have marked the billowy clouds

  10 Edged with intolerable radiancy

  Towering like rocks of jet

  Crowned with a diamond wreath.

  And yet there is a moment,

  When the sun’s highest point

  15Peeps like a star o’er ocean’s western edge,

  When those far clouds of feathery gold,

  Shaded with deepest purple, gleam

  Like islands on a dark blue sea;

  Then has thy fancy soared above the earth,

  20 And furled its wearied wing

  Within the Fairy’s fane.

  Yet not the golden islands

  Gleaming in yon flood of light,

  Nor the feathery curtains

  25 Stretching o’er the sun’s bright couch,

  Nor the burnished ocean waves

  Paving that gorgeous dome,

  So fair, so wonderful a sight

  As Mab’s etherial palace could afford.

  30Yet likest evening’s vault, that faery Hall!

  As Heaven, low resting on the wave, it spread

  Its floors of flashing light,

  Its vast and azure dome,

  Its fertile golden islands

  35 Floating on a silver sea;

  Whilst suns their mingling beamings darted

  Through clouds of circumambient darkness,

  And pearly battlements around

  Looked o’er the immense of Heaven.

  40 The magic car no longer moved.

  The Fairy and the Spirit

  Entered the Hall of Spells:

  Those golden clouds />
  That rolled in glittering billows

  45 Beneath the azure canopy

  With the etherial footsteps trembled not:

  The light and crimson mists,

  Floating to strains of thrilling melody

  Through that unearthly dwelling,

  50Yielded to every movement of the will.

  Upon their passive swell the Spirit leaned,

  And, for the varied bliss that pressed around,

  Used not the glorious privilege

  Of virtue and of wisdom.

  55 Spirit! the Fairy said,

  And pointed to the gorgeous dome,

  This is a wondrous sight

  And mocks all human grandeur;

  But, were it virtue’s only meed, to dwell

  60In a celestial palace, all resigned

  To pleasurable impulses, immured

  Within the prison of itself, the will

  Of changeless nature would be unfulfilled.

  Learn to make others happy. Spirit, come!

  65This is thine high reward:—the past shall rise;

  Thou shalt behold the present; I will teach

  The secrets of the future.

  The Fairy and the Spirit

  Approached the overhanging battlement.—

  70 Below lay stretched the universe!

  There, far as the remotest line

  That bounds imagination’s flight,

  Countless and unending orbs

  In mazy motion intermingled,

  75 Yet still fulfilled immutably

  Eternal Nature’s law.

  Above, below, around

  The circling systems formed

  A wilderness of harmony;

  80 Each with undeviating aim,

  In eloquent silence, through the depths of space

  Pursued its wondrous way.

  There was a little light

  That twinkled in the misty distance:

  85 None but a spirit’s eye

  Might ken that rolling orb;

  None but a spirit’s eye,

  And in no other place

  But that celestial dwelling, might behold

  90Each action of this earth’s inhabitants.

  But matter, space and time

  In those aërial mansions cease to act;

  And all-prevailing wisdom, when it reaps

  The harvest of its excellence, o’erbounds

  95Those obstacles, of which an earthly soul

  Fears to attempt the conquest.

  The Fairy pointed to the earth.

  The Spirit’s intellectual eye