Page:The complete poetical works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, including materials never before printed in any edition of the poems.djvu/795

§III

With one stern blow, hurled not the tyrant down, Crushed not the arm red with her dearest blood, 1 90 Had not submissive abjectness de- stroyed Nature's suggestions ? Look on yonder earth : The golden harvests spring ; the, un- failing sun Sheds light and life ; the fruits, the flowers, the trees, Arise in due succession ; all* things speak 195 Peace, harmony, and love. The uni- verse, In Nature's silent eloquence, declares That all fulfil the works of love and joy>— All but the outcast, Man. He fabricates The sword which stabs his peace ; he cherisheth 200 The snakes that gnaw his heart ; he raiseth up The tyrant, whose delight is in his woe, Whose sport is in his agony. Yon sun, Lights it the great alone ? Yon silver beams, Sleep they less sweetly on the cottage thatch 205 Than on the dome of kings? Is mother Earth A step-dame to her numerous sons, who earn Her unshared gifts with unremitting toil ; A mother only to those puling babes Who, nursed in ease and luxury, make men 210 The playthings of their babyhood, and mar, In self-important childishness, that peace Which men alone appreciate ? ' Spirit of Nature ! no. The pure diffusion of thy essence throbs Alike in every human heart. 2 1 6 Thou, aye, erectest there Thy throne of power unappealable : Thou art the j udge beneath whose nod Man's brief and frail authority 220 Is powerless as the wind That passeth idly by. Thine the tribunal which surpasseth The show of human justice, As God surpasses man. 225 ' Spirit of Nature ! thou Life of interminable multitudes ; Soul of those mighty spheres Whose changeless 'paths through Heaven's deep silence lie ; Soul of that smallestjbeing, 230 The dwelling of whose life Is one faint April sun-gleam ; — Man, like these passive things, Thy will unconsciously fulfilleth : Like theirs, his age of endless peace, Which time is fast maturing, 236 Will swiftly, surely come ; And the unbounded frame, which thou pervadest, Will be without a flaw Marring its perfect symmetry. 240 IV 'How beautiful this night ! the balmiest sigh, Which vernal zephyrs breathe in evening's ear, Were discord to the speaking quietude That wraps this moveless scene. Heaven's ebon vault, Studded with stars unutterably bright, Through which the moon's unclouded grandeur rolls, 6 Seems like a canopy which love had spread To curtain her sleeping world. Yon gentle hills, Robed in a garment of untrodden snow ; Yon darksome rocks, whence icicles depend, 1 o So stainless, that their white and glittering spires Tinge not the moon's pure beam ; yon castled steep, Whose banner hangeth o'er the time- worn tower So idly, that rapt fancy deemeth it