To seek strange truths in undiscovered lands. 90 95 With burning smoke, or where bitumen lakes 85 105 His wandering step, Obedient to high thoughts, has visited The awful ruins of the days of old: Memphis and Thebes, and whatsoe'er of strange Athens, and Tyre, and Balbec, and the waste Stupendous columns, and wild images 395 Of more than man, where marble dæmons watch The Zodiac's brazen mystery, and dead men Hang their mute thoughts on the mute walls around, He lingered, poring on memorials 120 Of the world's youth, through the long burning day Gazed on those speechless shapes, nor, when the moon 125 Filled the mysterious halls with floating shades, The Poet wandering on, through Arabie And Persia, and the wild Carmanian waste, And o'er the aërial mountains which pour down Indus and Oxus from their icy caves, In joy and exultation held his way; Till in the vale of Cashmire, far within Its loneliest dell, where odorous plants entwine Beneath the hollow rocks a natural bower, Beside a sparkling rivulet he stretched His languid limbs. A vision on his sleep There came, a dream of hopes that never yet 150 Had flushed his cheek. He dreamed a veiled maid Sate near him, talking in low solemn tones. Her voice was like the voice of his own soul Heard in the calm of thought; its music long, Like woven sounds of streams and breezes, held His inmost sense suspended in its web Of many-coloured woof and shifting hues. Knowledge and truth and virtue were her theme, And lofty hopes of divine liberty, 156 160 Thoughts the most dear to him, and poesy, She raised, with voice stifled in tremulous sobs Strange symphony, and in their branching veins 170 Its bursting burthen: at the sound he turned, worlds a dre dies wake up PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY 179 Her dark locks floating in the breath of night, Her beamy bending eyes, her parted lips Outstretched, and pale, and quivering eagerly. His strong heart sunk and sickened with excess Of love. He reared his shuddering limbs and quelled His gasping breath, and spread his arms to meet 185 Her panting bosom: . . . she drew back awhile, * 190 HYMN TO INTELLECTUAL BEAUTY The awful shadow of some unseen Power Floats though unseen amongst us, visiting This various world with as inconstant wing As summer winds that creep from flower to flower; Like moonbeams that behind some piny mountain shower, It visits with inconstant glance Each human heart and countenance; Like aught that for its grace may be Dear, and yet dearer for its mystery. Spirit of BEAUTY, that dost consecrate ΙΟ With thine own hues all thou dost shine upon human thought or form, - where art thou gone? 15 Why dost thou pass away and leave our state, 20 5 Beauty will from the world, From all we hear and all we see, 30 Doubt, chance, and mutability. Thy light alone - like mist o'er mountains driven, Or music by the night wind sent, Through strings of some still instrument, Or moonlight on a midnight stream, Gives grace and truth to life's unquiet de 35 I shrieked, and clasped my hands in ecstasy! 60 Of studious zeal or love's delight 70 75 The day becomes more solemn and serene AMONG THE EUGANEAN HILLS Of nature on my passive youth Descended, to my onward life supply Its calm to one who worships thee, And every form containing thee, Whom, SPIRIT fair, thy spells did bind To fear himself, and love all human kind. SONNET OZYMANDIAS I met a traveller from an antique land 80 Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown, And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, 5 Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, (stamped on these lifeless things,) The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed: And on the pedestal these words appear: ΙΟ To the haven of the grave. What if there no friends will greet; In friendship's smile, in love's caress? Lo, the sun floats up the sky By the skirts of that gray cloud 397 30 210 215 220 Till the ship has almost drank Death from the o'er-brimming deep; And sinks down, down, like that sleep 15 When the dreamer seems to be But Death promised, to assuage her, That he would petition for |