The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley Part 110

1.

The billows on the beach are leaping around it, The bark is weak and frail, The sea looks black, and the clouds that bound it Darkly strew the gale.

Come with me, thou delightful child, Come with me, though the wave is wild, _5 And the winds are loose, we must not stay, Or the slaves of the law may rend thee away.

2.

They have taken thy brother and sister dear, They have made them unfit for thee; _10 They have withered the smile and dried the tear Which should have been sacred to me.

To a blighting faith and a cause of crime They have bound them slaves in youthly prime, And they will curse my name and thee _15 Because we fearless are and free.

3.

Come thou, beloved as thou art; Another sleepeth still Near thy sweet mother's anxious heart, Which thou with joy shalt fill, _20 With fairest smiles of wonder thrown On that which is indeed our own, And which in distant lands will be The dearest playmate unto thee.

4.

Fear not the tyrants will rule for ever, _25 Or the priests of the evil faith; They stand on the brink of that raging river, Whose waves they have tainted with death.

It is fed from the depth of a thousand dells, Around them it foams and rages and swells; _30 And their swords and their sceptres I floating see, Like wrecks on the surge of eternity.

5.

Rest, rest, and shriek not, thou gentle child!

The rocking of the boat thou fearest, And the cold spray and the clamour wild?-- _35 There, sit between us two, thou dearest-- Me and thy mother--well we know The storm at which thou tremblest so, With all its dark and hungry graves, Less cruel than the savage slaves _40 Who hunt us o'er these sheltering waves.

6.

This hour will in thy memory Be a dream of days forgotten long.

We soon shall dwell by the azure sea Of serene and golden Italy, Or Greece, the Mother of the free; _45 And I will teach thine infant tongue To call upon those heroes old In their own language, and will mould Thy growing spirit in the flame Of Grecian lore, that by such name _50 A patriot's birthright thou mayst claim!

NOTES: _1 on the beach omitted 1839, 1st edition.

_8 of the law 1839, 1st edition; of law 1839, 2nd edition.

_14 prime transcript; time editions 1839.

_16 fearless are editions 1839; are fearless transcript.

_20 shalt transcript; wilt editions 1839.

_25-_32 Fear...eternity omitted, transcript.

See "Rosalind and Helen", lines 894-901.

_33 and transcript; omitted editions 1839.

_41 us transcript, 1839, 1st edition; thee 1839, 2nd edition.

_42 will in transcript, 1839, 2nd edition; will sometime in 1839, 1st edition.

_43 long transcript; omitted editions 1839.

_48 those transcript, 1839, 1st edition; their 1839, 2nd edition.

FROM THE ORIGINAL DRAFT OF THE POEM TO WILLIAM Sh.e.l.lEY.

[Published in Dr. Garnett's "Relics of Sh.e.l.ley", 1862.]

1.

The world is now our dwelling-place; Where'er the earth one fading trace Of what was great and free does keep, That is our home!...

Mild thoughts of man's ungentle race _5 Shall our contented exile reap; For who that in some happy place His own free thoughts can freely chase By woods and waves can clothe his face In cynic smiles? Child! we shall weep. _10

2.

This lament, The memory of thy grievous wrong Will fade...

But genius is omnipotent To hallow... _15

ON f.a.n.n.y G.o.dWIN.

[Published by Mrs. Sh.e.l.ley, among the poems of 1817, in "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.]

Her voice did quiver as we parted, Yet knew I not that heart was broken From which it came, and I departed Heeding not the words then spoken.

Misery--O Misery, _5 This world is all too wide for thee.

LINES.

[Published by Mrs. Sh.e.l.ley with the date 'November 5th, 1817,' in "Posthumous Poems", 1824.]

1.

That time is dead for ever, child!

Drowned, frozen, dead for ever!

We look on the past And stare aghast At the spectres wailing, pale and ghast, _5 Of hopes which thou and I beguiled To death on life's dark river.

2.

The stream we gazed on then rolled by; Its waves are unreturning; But we yet stand _10 In a lone land, Like tombs to mark the memory Of hopes and fears, which fade and flee In the light of life's dim morning.

DEATH.

[Published by Mrs. Sh.e.l.ley in "Posthumous Poems", 1824.]

1.

They die--the dead return not--Misery Sits near an open grave and calls them over, A Youth with h.o.a.ry hair and haggard eye-- They are the names of kindred, friend and lover, Which he so feebly calls--they all are gone-- _5 Fond wretch, all dead! those vacant names alone, This most familiar scene, my pain-- These tombs--alone remain.

2.

Misery, my sweetest friend--oh, weep no more!

Thou wilt not be consoled--I wonder not! _10 For I have seen thee from thy dwelling's door Watch the calm sunset with them, and this spot Was even as bright and calm, but transitory, And now thy hopes are gone, thy hair is h.o.a.ry; This most familiar scene, my pain-- _15 These tombs--alone remain.

NOTE: _5 calls editions 1839; called 1824.

OTHO.

[Published by Mrs. Sh.e.l.ley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.]