Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/751

 PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY

Another Athens shall arise,

And to remoter time Bequeath, like sunset to the skies,

The splendour of its prime; And leave, if naught so bright may live, All earth can take or Heaven can give.

Saturn and Love their long repose Shall burst, more bright and good

Than all who fell, than One who rose, Than many unsubdued

Not gold, not blood, their altar dowers,

But votive tears and symbol flowers.

O cease' must hate and death return?

Cease' must men kill and dic ? Cease' drain not to its dregs the urn

Of bitter prophecy' The world is weary of the past O might it die or rest at last!

��H

��615 To a Skylark

'AIL to thee, blithe spirit!

Bird thou never wert That from heaven or near it

Pourest thy full heart In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.

Higher still and higher

From the earth thou springest, Like a cloud of fire;

The blue deep thou wingest,

And singing still dost soar, and soaring ever singest.

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