TO —.
[Published by Mrs. Shelley, “Posthumous Poems”, 1824.
There is a Boscombe manuscript.]
1.
When passion’s trance is overpast,
If tenderness and truth could last,
Or live, whilst all wild feelings keep
Some mortal slumber, dark and deep,
I should not weep, I should not weep! _5
2.
It were enough to feel, to see,
Thy soft eyes gazing tenderly,
And dream the rest—and burn and be
The secret food of fires unseen,
Couldst thou but be as thou hast been, _10
3.
After the slumber of the year
The woodland violets reappear;
All things revive in field or grove,
And sky and sea, but two, which move
And form all others, life and love. _15
NOTE: _15 form Boscombe manuscript; for editions 1824, 1839.
***
A BRIDAL SONG.
[Published by Mrs. Shelley, “Posthumous Poems”, 1824.]
1.
The golden gates of Sleep unbar
Where Strength and Beauty, met together,
Kindle their image like a star
In a sea of glassy weather!
Night, with all thy stars look down,— _5
Darkness, weep thy holiest dew,—
Never smiled the inconstant moon
On a pair so true.
Let eyes not see their own delight;—
Haste, swift Hour, and thy flight _10
Oft renew.