Percy Bysshe Shelley - Delphi Poets Series
Page 95
Youth will stand foremost ever, — age may go
To the dark grave unhonoured.
MINISTER:
Nowadays
People assert their rights: they go too far; 280
But as for me, the good old times I praise;
Then we were all in all—’twas something worth
One’s while to be in place and wear a star;
That was indeed the golden age on earth.
PARVENU:
We too are active, and we did and do 285
What we ought not, perhaps; and yet we now
Will seize, whilst all things are whirled round and round,
A spoke of Fortune’s wheel, and keep our ground.
AUTHOR:
Who now can taste a treatise of deep sense
And ponderous volume? ‘tis impertinence 290
To write what none will read, therefore will I
To please the young and thoughtless people try.
MEPHISTOPHELES (WHO AT ONCE APPEARS TO HAVE GROWN VERY OLD):
I
find the people ripe for the last day,
Since I last came up to the wizard mountain;
And as my little cask runs turbid now, 295
So is the world drained to the dregs.
PEDLAR-WITCH:
Look here,
Gentlemen; do not hurry on so fast;
And lose the chance of a good pennyworth.
I have a pack full of the choicest wares
Of every sort, and yet in all my bundle 300
Is nothing like what may be found on earth;
Nothing that in a moment will make rich
Men and the world with fine malicious mischief —
There is no dagger drunk with blood; no bowl
From which consuming poison may be drained 305
By innocent and healthy lips; no jewel,
The price of an abandoned maiden’s shame;
No sword which cuts the bond it cannot loose,
Or stabs the wearer’s enemy in the back;
No —
MEPHISTOPHELES:
Gossip, you know little of these times. 310
What has been, has been; what is done, is past,
They shape themselves into the innovations
They breed, and innovation drags us with it.
The torrent of the crowd sweeps over us:
You think to impel, and are yourself impelled. 315
FAUST:
What is that yonder?
MEPHISTOPHELES:
Mark her well. It is
Lilith.
FAUST:
Who?
MEPHISTOPHELES:
Lilith, the first wife of Adam.
Beware of her fair hair, for she excels
All women in the magic of her locks;
And when she winds them round a young man’s neck, 320
She will not ever set him free again.
FAUST:
There sit a girl and an old woman — they
Seem to be tired with pleasure and with play.
MEPHISTOPHELES:
There is no rest to-night for any one:
When one dance ends another is begun; 325
Come, let us to it. We shall have rare fun.
(FAUST DANCES AND SINGS WITH A GIRL, AND MEPHISTOPHELES WITH AN OLD WOMAN.)
FAUST:
I had once a lovely dream
In which I saw an apple-tree,
Where two fair apples with their gleam
To climb and taste attracted me. 330
THE GIRL:
She with apples you desired
From Paradise came long ago:
With you I feel that if required,
Such still within my garden grow.
…
PROCTO-PHANTASMIST:
What is this cursed multitude about? 335
Have we not long since proved to demonstration
That ghosts move not on ordinary feet?
But these are dancing just like men and women.
THE GIRL:
What does he want then at our ball?
FAUST:
Oh! he
Is far above us all in his conceit: 340
Whilst we enjoy, he reasons of enjoyment;
And any step which in our dance we tread,
If it be left out of his reckoning,
Is not to be considered as a step.
There are few things that scandalize him not: 345
And when you whirl round in the circle now,
As he went round the wheel in his old mill,
He says that you go wrong in all respects,
Especially if you congratulate him
Upon the strength of the resemblance.
PROCTO-PHANTASMIST:
Fly! 350
Vanish! Unheard-of impudence! What, still there!
In this enlightened age too, since you have been
Proved not to exist! — But this infernal brood
Will hear no reason and endure no rule.
Are we so wise, and is the POND still haunted? 355
How long have I been sweeping out this rubbish
Of superstition, and the world will not
Come clean with all my pains! — it is a case
Unheard of!
THE GIRL:
Then leave off teasing us so.
PROCTO-PHANTASMIST:
I tell you, spirits, to your faces now, 360
That I should not regret this despotism
Of spirits, but that mine can wield it not.
To-night I shall make poor work of it,
Yet I will take a round with you, and hope
Before my last step in the living dance 365
To beat the poet and the devil together.
MEPHISTOPHELES:
At last he will sit down in some foul puddle;
That is his way of solacing himself;
Until some leech, diverted with his gravity,
Cures him of spirits and the spirit together. 370
(TO FAUST, WHO HAS SECEDED FROM THE DANCE.)
Why do you let that fair girl pass from you,
Who sung so sweetly to you in the dance?
FAUST:
A red mouse in the middle of her singing
Sprung from her mouth.
MEPHISTOPHELES:
That was all right, my friend:
Be it enough that the mouse was not gray. 375
Do not disturb your hour of happiness
With close consideration of such trifles.
FAUST:
Then saw I —
MEPHISTOPHELES:
What?
FAUST:
Seest thou not a pale,
Fair girl, standing alone, far, far away?
She drags herself now forward with slow steps, 380
And seems as if she moved with shackled feet:
I cannot overcome the thought that she
Is like poor Margaret.
MEPHISTOPHELES:
Let it be — pass on —
No good can come of it — it is not well
To meet it — it is an enchanted phantom, 385
A lifeless idol; with its numbing look,
It freezes up the blood of man; and they
Who meet its ghastly stare are turned to stone,
Like those who saw Medusa.
FAUST:
Oh, too true!
Her eyes are like the eyes of a fresh corpse 390
Which no beloved hand has closed, alas!
That is the breast which Margaret yielded to me —
Those are the lovely limbs which I enjoyed!
MEPHISTOPHELES:
It is all magic, poor deluded fool!
She looks to every one like his first love. 395
FAUST:
Oh, what delight! what woe! I cannot turn
My looks from her sweet piteous countenance.
How strangely does a single blood-red line,
&nbs
p; Not broader than the sharp edge of a knife,
Adorn her lovely neck!
MEPHISTOPHELES:
Ay, she can carry 400
Her head under her arm upon occasion;
Perseus has cut it off for her. These pleasures
End in delusion. — Gain this rising ground,
It is as airy here as in a…
And if I am not mightily deceived, 405
I see a theatre. — What may this mean?
ATTENDANT:
Quite a new piece, the last of seven, for ‘tis
The custom now to represent that number.
‘Tis written by a Dilettante, and
The actors who perform are Dilettanti; 410
Excuse me, gentlemen; but I must vanish.
I am a Dilettante curtain-lifter.
The Poems
Eton College, destined to be Shelley’s longest place of residence, from 1804 to 1810
Eton College Chapel today
LIST OF POEMS IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER
UNTITLED.
TO MISS —— (HARRIET GROVE) FROM MISS —— (ELIZABETH SHELLEY).
SONG. COLD, COLD IS THE BLAST WHEN DECEMBER IS HOWLING
SONG. COME (HARRIET)! SWEET IS THE HOUR
SONG. DESPAIR.
SONG. SORROW.
SONG. HOPE.
SONG. OH! WHAT IS THE GAIN OF RESTLESS CARE
SONG. AH! GRASP THE DIRE DAGGER AND COUCH THE FELL SPEAR
THE IRISHMAN’S SONG.
SONG. FIERCE ROARS THE MIDNIGHT STORM
SONG. TO (HARRIET).
SONG. TO — (HARRIET).
SAINT EDMOND’S EVE.
REVENGE.
GHASTA OR, THE AVENGING DEMON!!!
FRAGMENT, OR THE TRIUMPH OF CONSCIENCE.
WAR.
FRAGMENT: SUPPOSED TO BE AN EPITHALAMIUM OF FRANCIS RAVAILLAC AND CHARLOTTE CORDAY.
SYMPHONY.
DESPAIR.
FRAGMENT.
THE SPECTRAL HORSEMAN.
MELODY TO A SCENE OF FORMER TIMES.
VICTORIA.
ON THE DARK HEIGHT OF JURA.
SISTER ROSA: A BALLAD.
ST. IRVYNE’S TOWER.
BEREAVEMENT.
THE DROWNED LOVER.
STANZA FROM A TRANSLATION OF THE MARSEILLAISE HYMN.
THE DEVIL’S WALK.
QUEEN MAB.
TO HARRIET *****.
VERSES ON A CAT.
FRAGMENT: OMENS.
EPITAPHIUM.
IN HOROLOGIUM.
A DIALOGUE.
TO THE MOONBEAM.
THE SOLITARY.
TO DEATH.
LOVE’S ROSE.
EYES: A FRAGMENT.
BIGOTRY’S VICTIM.
ON AN ICICLE THAT CLUNG TO THE GRASS OF A GRAVE.
LOVE.
ON A FETE AT CARLTON HOUSE: FRAGMENT.
TO A STAR.
TO MARY WHO DIED IN THIS OPINION.
A TALE OF SOCIETY AS IT IS: FROM FACTS, 1811.
TO THE REPUBLICANS OF NORTH AMERICA.
TO IRELAND.
ON ROBERT EMMET’S GRAVE.
THE RETROSPECT: CWM ELAN, 1812.
FRAGMENT OF A SONNET.
TO HARRIET.
TO A BALLOON LADEN WITH KNOWLEDGE.
ON LAUNCHING SOME BOTTLES FILLED WITH KNOWLEDGE INTO THE BRISTOL CHANNEL.
FAREWELL TO NORTH DEVON.
ON LEAVING LONDON FOR WALES.
THE WANDERING JEW’S SOLILOQUY.
EVENING. TO HARRIET.
TO IANTHE.
SONG FROM THE WANDERING JEW.
FRAGMENT FROM THE WANDERING JEW.
TO THE QUEEN OF MY HEART.
STANZA, WRITTEN AT BRACKNELL.
STANZAS. — APRIL, 1814.
TO HARRIET.
TO MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT GODWIN.
TO — .
MUTABILITY.
ON DEATH.
A SUMMER EVENING CHURCHYARD.
LECHLADE, GLOUCESTERSHIRE.
TO — .
DAKRTSI DIOISO POTMON ‘APOTMON.
TO WORDSWORTH.
FEELINGS OF A REPUBLICAN ON THE FALL OF BONAPARTE.
LINES.
THE SUNSET.
HYMN TO INTELLECTUAL BEAUTY.
MONT BLANC.
LINES WRITTEN IN THE VALE OF CHAMOUNI.
CANCELLED PASSAGE OF MONT BLANC.
HOME. (FRAGMENT)
FRAGMENT OF A GHOST STORY.
NOTE ON POEMS OF 1816, BY MRS. SHELLEY.
MARIANNE’S DREAM.
TO CONSTANTIA, SINGING.
STANZAS 1 AND 2.
TO CONSTANTIA.
TO ONE SINGING. (FRAGMENT)
A FRAGMENT: TO MUSIC. (FRAGMENT)
ANOTHER FRAGMENT: TO MUSIC. (FRAGMENT)
MIGHTY EAGLE’.
SUPPOSED TO BE ADDRESSED TO WILLIAM GODWIN.
TO THE LORD CHANCELLOR.
TO WILLIAM SHELLEY.
FROM THE ORIGINAL DRAFT OF THE POEM TO WILLIAM SHELLEY.
ON FANNY GODWIN.
LINES.
DEATH.
OTHO.
FRAGMENTS SUPPOSED TO BE PARTS OF OTHO.
O THAT A CHARIOT OF CLOUD WERE MINE’.
TO A FRIEND RELEASED FROM PRISON. (FRAGMENT)
SATAN BROKEN LOOSE. (FRAGMENT)
IGNICULUS DESIDERII. (FRAGMENT)
AMOR AETERNUS. (FRAGMENT)
THOUGHTS COME AND GO IN SOLITUDE. (FRAGMENT)
A HATE-SONG.
LINES TO A CRITIC.
OZYMANDIAS.
TO THE NILE.
PASSAGE OF THE APENNINES.
THE PAST.
TO MARY — .
ON A FADED VIOLET.
LINES WRITTEN AMONG THE EUGANEAN HILLS.
SCENE FROM ‘TASSO’.
MADDALO, A COURTIER. MALPIGLIO, A POET. PIGNA, A MINISTER. ALBANO, AN USHER.
SONG FOR ‘TASSO’.
INVOCATION TO MISERY.
STANZAS WRITTEN IN DEJECTION, NEAR NAPLES.
THE WOODMAN AND THE NIGHTINGALE.
MARENGHI.
SONNET.
TO BYRON. (FRAGMENT)
APOSTROPHE TO SILENCE. (FRAGMENT)
THE LAKE’S MARGIN. (FRAGMENT)
MY HEAD IS WILD WITH WEEPING. (FRAGMENT)
THE VINE-SHROUD. (FRAGMENT)
LINES WRITTEN DURING THE CASTLEREAGH ADMINISTRATION.
SONG TO THE MEN OF ENGLAND.
SIMILES FOR TWO POLITICAL CHARACTERS OF 1819.
TO THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND. (FRAGMENT)
WHAT MEN GAIN FAIRLY. (FRAGMENT)
A NEW NATIONAL ANTHEM.
SONNET: ENGLAND IN 1819.
AN ODE, WRITTEN OCTOBER, 1819, BEFORE THE SPANIARDS HAD RECOVERED THEIR LIBERTY.
CANCELLED STANZA.
ODE TO HEAVEN.
CHORUS OF SPIRITS:
CANCELLED FRAGMENTS OF THE ODE TO HEAVEN.
ODE TO THE WEST WIND.
AN EXHORTATION.
THE INDIAN SERENADE.
CANCELLED PASSAGE.
TO SOPHIA (MISS STACEY).
TO WILLIAM SHELLEY.
TO WILLIAM SHELLEY.
TO MARY SHELLEY.
TO MARY SHELLEY.
ON THE MEDUSA OF LEONARDO DA VINCI IN THE FLORENTINE GALLERY.
LOVE’S PHILOSOPHY.
FOLLOW TO THE DEEP WOOD’S WEEDS. (FRAGMENT)
THE BIRTH OF PLEASURE.
LOVE THE UNIVERSE TO-DAY. (FRAGMENT)
A GENTLE STORY OF TWO LOVERS YOUNG. (FRAGMENT)
LOVE’S TENDER ATMOSPHERE. (FRAGMENT)
WEDDED SOULS. (FRAGMENT)
IS IT THAT IN SOME BRIGHTER SPHERE. (FRAGMENT)
SUFFICIENT UNTO THE DAY. (FRAGMENT)
YE GENTLE VISITATIONS OF CALM THOUGHT. (FRAGMENT)
MUSIC AND SWEET POETRY. (FRAGMENT)
THE SEPULCHRE OF MEMORY. (FRAGMENT)
WHEN A LOVER CLASPS HIS FAIREST. (FRAGMENT)
WAKE THE SERPENT NOT. (FRAGMENT)
; RAIN. (FRAGMENT)
A TALE UNTOLD. (FRAGMENT)
TO ITALY. (FRAGMENT)
WINE OF THE FAIRIES. (FRAGMENT)
A ROMAN’S CHAMBER. (FRAGMENT)
ROME AND NATURE. (FRAGMENT)
VARIATION OF THE SONG OF THE MOON.
PROMETHEUS UNBOUND”, ACT 4.)
CANCELLED STANZA OF THE MASK OF ANARCHY.
THE SENSITIVE PLANT.
PART 1.
PART 2.
PART 3.
CONCLUSION.
CANCELLED PASSAGE.
A VISION OF THE SEA.
THE CLOUD.
TO A SKYLARK.
ODE TO LIBERTY.
CANCELLED PASSAGE OF THE ODE TO LIBERTY.
TO — .
ARETHUSA.
SONG OF PROSERPINE WHILE GATHERING FLOWERS ON THE PLAIN OF ENNA.
HYMN OF APOLLO.
HYMN OF PAN.
THE QUESTION.
THE TWO SPIRITS: AN ALLEGORY.
ODE TO NAPLES.
STROPHE 1.
STROPHE 2.
AUTUMN: A DIRGE.
THE WANING MOON.
TO THE MOON.
DEATH.
LIBERTY.
SUMMER AND WINTER.
THE TOWER OF FAMINE.
AN ALLEGORY.
THE WORLD’S WANDERERS.
SONNET.
LINES TO A REVIEWER.
FRAGMENT OF A SATIRE ON SATIRE.
GOOD-NIGHT.
BUONA NOTTE.
ORPHEUS.
FIORDISPINA.
TIME LONG PAST.
THE DESERTS OF DIM SLEEP. (FRAGMENT)
THE VIEWLESS AND INVISIBLE CONSEQUENCE. (FRAGMENT)
A SERPENT-FACE. (FRAGMENT)
DEATH IN LIFE. (FRAGMENT)
SUCH HOPE, AS IS THE SICK DESPAIR OF GOOD. (FRAGMENT)
ALAS! THIS IS NOT WHAT I THOUGHT LIFE WAS. (FRAGMENT)
MILTON’S SPIRIT. (FRAGMENT)
UNRISEN SPLENDOUR OF THE BRIGHTEST SUN. (FRAGMENT)
PATER OMNIPOTENS. (FRAGMENT)
TO THE MIND OF MAN. (FRAGMENT)
DIRGE FOR THE YEAR.
TO NIGHT.
TIME.
LINES.
FROM THE ARABIC: AN IMITATION.
TO EMILIA VIVIANI.
THE FUGITIVES.
TO — .
SONG.
MUTABILITY.
LINES WRITTEN ON HEARING THE NEWS OF THE DEATH OF NAPOLEON.
SONNET: POLITICAL GREATNESS.
THE AZIOLA.
A LAMENT.
REMEMBRANCE.
TO EDWARD WILLIAMS.
TO — .
TO — .
A BRIDAL SONG.
EPITHALAMIUM.
ANOTHER VERSION OF THE PRECEDING.
ANOTHER VERSION OF THE SAME.
LOVE, HOPE, DESIRE, AND FEAR.
FRAGMENTS WRITTEN FOR HELLAS.
I WOULD NOT BE A KING. (FRAGMENT)
GINEVRA.
THE DIRGE.
EVENING: PONTE AL MARE, PISA
THE BOAT ON THE SERCHIO.
MUSIC.
SONNET TO BYRON.
FRAGMENT ON KEATS.
ON KEATS, WHO DESIRED THAT ON HIS TOMB SHOULD BE INSCRIBED —