***

FRAGMENT: ROME AND NATURE.

[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition.]

Rome has fallen, ye see it lying
Heaped in undistinguished ruin:
Nature is alone undying.

***

VARIATION OF THE SONG OF THE MOON.

[Published by Mrs. Shelley, "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st edition.]

("PROMETHEUS UNBOUND", ACT 4.)

As a violet's gentle eye
Gazes on the azure sky
Until its hue grows like what it beholds;
As a gray and empty mist
Lies like solid amethyst _5
Over the western mountain it enfolds,
When the sunset sleeps
Upon its snow;
As a strain of sweetest sound
Wraps itself the wind around _10
Until the voiceless wind be music too;
As aught dark, vain, and dull,
Basking in what is beautiful,
Is full of light and love—

***