LINES TO A REVIEWER.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
[Published by Leigh Hunt, “The Literary Pocket-Book”, 1823. These
lines, and the “Sonnet” immediately preceding, are signed Sigma in the
“Literary Pocket-Book”.]
Alas, good friend, what profit can you see
In hating such a hateless thing as me?
There is no sport in hate where all the rage
Is on one side: in vain would you assuage
Your frowns upon an unresisting smile, _5
In which not even contempt lurks to beguile
Your heart, by some faint sympathy of hate.
Oh, conquer what you cannot satiate!
For to your passion I am far more coy
Than ever yet was coldest maid or boy _10
In winter noon. Of your antipathy
If I am the Narcissus, you are free
To pine into a sound with hating me.
NOTE:
_3 where editions 1824, 1839; when 1823.
***