Page:The complete poetical works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, including materials never before printed in any edition of the poems.djvu/585

 Her hands were clasped, veined, and pale as snow, And quivering—young Tasso, too, was there. Maddalo. Thou seest on whom from thine own worshipped heaven Thou drawest down smiles—they did not rain on thee. Malpiglio. Would they were parching lightnings for his sake On whom they fell!

—alas! our life is love; But when we cease to breathe and move I do suppose love ceases too. I thought, but not as now I do, Keen thoughts and bright of linked lore, Of all that men had thought before, And all that Nature shows, and more.

And still I love and still I think, But strangely, for my heart can drink The dregs of such despair, and live, And love; And if I think, my thoughts come fast, I mix the present with the past, And each seems uglier than the last.

Sometimes I see before me flee A silver spirit's form, like thee, O Leonora, and I sit still watching it, Till by the grated casement's ledge It fades, with such a sigh, as sedge Breathes o'er the breezy streamlet's edge.

[Published by Medwin, The Athenæum, Sept. 8, 1832. Reprinted (as Misery, a Fragment) by Mrs. Shelley, Poetical Works, 1839, 1st ed. Our text is that of 1839. A pencil copy of this poem is amongst the Shelley MSS. at the Bodleian Library. See Mr. C. D. Locock's Examination, &c, 1903, p. 38. The readings of this copy are indicated by the letter B. in the footnotes.]

, be happy!—sit near me, Shadow-vested Misery: Coy, unwilling, silent bride, Mourning in thy robe of pride, Desolation—deified!

Come, be happy!—sit near me: Sad as I may seem to thee, I am happier far than thou, Lady, whose imperial brow Is endiademed with woe.