The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley — Complete

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

[Published (1) by Mrs. Shelley, “Posthumous Poems”, 1824, (2) by W.M.
Rossetti, “Complete Poetical Works”, 1870.]

1.
Art thou pale for weariness
Of climbing heaven and gazing on the earth,
Wandering companionless
Among the stars that have a different birth,—
And ever changing, like a joyless eye _5
That finds no object worth its constancy?

2.
Thou chosen sister of the Spirit,
That grazes on thee till in thee it pities…

***

DEATH.

[Published by Mrs. Shelley, “Posthumous Poems”, 1824.]

1.
Death is here and death is there,
Death is busy everywhere,
All around, within, beneath,
Above is death—and we are death.

2.
Death has set his mark and seal _5
On all we are and all we feel,
On all we know and all we fear,

…

3.
First our pleasures die—and then
Our hopes, and then our fears—and when
These are dead, the debt is due, _10
Dust claims dust—and we die too.