D. Locock’s “Examination”, etc., 1903, page 63.]
Percy Bysshe Shelley
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...
NOTES:
_2 unsteady B.; uneasy 1839, 1st edition.
_7, _8 then...Sick B.; wanting, 1839, 1st edition.
***
FRAGMENT: “AMOR AETERNUS”.
[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.
***
FRAGMENT: THOUGHTS COME AND GO IN SOLITUDE.
[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
***