Garnett’s “Relics of Shelley”, 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 FANNY GODWIN.

(Published by Mrs. Shelley, 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. Shelley 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. Shelley in “Posthumous Poems”, 1824.)

1.
They die — the dead return not — Misery
Sits near an open grave and calls them over,
A Youth with hoary 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 hoary;
This most familiar scene, my pain — 15
These tombs — alone remain.

OTHO.

(Published by Mrs. Shelley, “Poetical Works”, 1839, 1st edition.)

1.
Thou wert not, Cassius, and thou couldst not be,
Last of the Romans, though thy memory claim
From Brutus his own glory — and on thee
Rests the full splendour of his sacred fame:
Nor he who dared make the foul tyrant quail    5
Amid his cowering senate with thy name,
Though thou and he were great — it will avail
To thine own fame that Otho’s should not fail.

2.
‘Twill wrong thee not — thou wouldst, if thou couldst feel,
Abjure such envious fame — great Otho died    10
Like thee — he sanctified his country’s steel,
At once the tyrant and tyrannicide,
In his own blood — a deed it was to bring
Tears from all men — though full of gentle pride,
Such pride as from impetuous love may spring,    15
That will not be refused its offering.

FRAGMENTS SUPPOSED TO BE PARTS OF OTHO.

(Published by Dr. Garnett, “Relics of Shelley”, 1862, — where, however, only the fragment numbered 2 is assigned to “Otho”. Forman (1876) connects all three fragments with that projected poem.)

1.
Those whom nor power, nor lying faith, nor toil,
Nor custom, queen of many slaves, makes blind,
Have ever grieved that man should be the spoil
Of his own weakness, and with earnest mind
Fed hopes of its redemption; these recur    5
Chastened by deathful victory now, and find
Foundations in this foulest age, and stir
Me whom they cheer to be their minister.

2.
Dark is the realm of grief: but human things
Those may not know who cannot weep for them.    10

…

3.
Once more descend
The shadows of my soul upon mankind,
For to those hearts with which they never blend,
Thoughts are but shadows which the flashing mind
From the swift clouds which track its flight of fire,    15
Casts on the gloomy world it leaves behind.

…

‘

O THAT A CHARIOT OF CLOUD WERE MINE’.

(Published by Dr. Garnett, “Relics of Shelley”, 1862.)

O that a chariot of cloud were mine!
Of cloud which the wild tempest weaves in air,
When the moon over the ocean’s line
Is spreading the locks of her bright gray hair.
O that a chariot of cloud were mine!    5
I would sail on the waves of the billowy wind
To the mountain peak and the rocky lake,
And the…

TO A FRIEND RELEASED FROM PRISON. (FRAGMENT)

(Published by Dr. Garnett, “Relics of Shelley”, 1862.)

For me, my friend, if not that tears did tremble
In my faint eyes, and that my heart beat fast
With feelings which make rapture pain resemble,
Yet, from thy voice that falsehood starts aghast,
I thank thee — let the tyrant keep    5
His chains and tears, yea, let him weep
With rage to see thee freshly risen,
Like strength from slumber, from the prison,
In which he vainly hoped the soul to bind
Which on the chains must prey that fetter humankind.    10

SATAN BROKEN LOOSE. (FRAGMENT)

(Published by Rossetti, “Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.”, 1870.)

A golden-winged Angel stood
Before the Eternal Judgement-seat:
His looks were wild, and Devils’ blood
Stained his dainty hands and feet.
The Father and the Son    5
Knew that strife was now begun.
They knew that Satan had broken his chain,
And with millions of daemons in his train,
Was ranging over the world again.
Before the Angel had told his tale,    10
A sweet and a creeping sound
Like the rushing of wings was heard around;
And suddenly the lamps grew pale —
The lamps, before the Archangels seven,
That burn continually in Heaven.    15

IGNICULUS DESIDERII. (FRAGMENT)

(Published by Mrs. Shelley, “Poetical Works”, 1839, 1st edition. This fragment is amongst the Shelley manuscripts at the Bodleian. See Mr. C.D. Locock’s “Examination”, etc., 1903, page 63.)

To thirst and find no fill — to wail and wander
With short unsteady steps — to pause and ponder —
To feel the blood run through the veins and tingle
Where busy thought and blind sensation mingle;
To nurse the image of unfelt caresses    5
Till dim imagination just possesses
The half-created shadow, then all the night
Sick…

AMOR AETERNUS. (FRAGMENT)

(Published by Mrs. Shelley, “Poetical Works”, 1839, 1st edition.)

Wealth and dominion fade into the mass
Of the great sea of human right and wrong,
When once from our possession they must pass;
But love, though misdirected, is among
The things which are immortal, and surpass    5
All that frail stuff which will be — or which was.

THOUGHTS COME AND GO IN SOLITUDE. (FRAGMENT)

(Published by Mrs. Shelley, “Poetical Works”, 1839, 1st edition.)

My thoughts arise and fade in solitude,
The verse that would invest them melts away
Like moonlight in the heaven of spreading day:
How beautiful they were, how firm they stood,
Flecking the starry sky like woven pearl!    5

A HATE-SONG.

(Published by Rossetti, “Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S.”, 1870.)

A hater he came and sat by a ditch,
And he took an old cracked lute;
And he sang a song which was more of a screech
‘Gainst a woman that was a brute.

LINES TO A CRITIC.

(Published by Hunt in “The Liberal”, No. 3, 1823.