***

FRAGMENT:  WINE OF THE FAIRIES.

[Published by Mrs. Shelley, “Poetical Works”, 1839, 1st edition.]

I am drunk with the honey wine
Of the moon-unfolded eglantine,
Which fairies catch in hyacinth bowls. 
The bats, the dormice, and the moles
Sleep in the walls or under the sward 5
Of the desolate castle yard;
And when ’tis spilt on the summer earth
Or its fumes arise among the dew,
Their jocund dreams are full of mirth,
They gibber their joy in sleep; for few 10
Of the fairies bear those bowls so new!

***

FRAGMENT:  A ROMAN’S CHAMBER.

[Published by Mrs. Shelley, “Poetical Works”, 1839, 2nd edition.]

1. 
In the cave which wild weeds cover
Wait for thine aethereal lover;
For the pallid moon is waning,
O’er the spiral cypress hanging
And the moon no cloud is staining. 5

2. 
It was once a Roman’s chamber,
Where he kept his darkest revels,
And the wild weeds twine and clamber;
It was then a chasm for devils.

***

FRAGMENT:  ROME AND NATURE.

[Published by Mrs. Shelley, “Poetical Works”, 1839, 2nd edition.]

Rome has fallen, ye see it lying
Heaped in undistinguished ruin: 
Nature is alone undying.

***

VARIATION OF THE SONG OF THE MOON.

[Published by Mrs. Shelley, “Poetical Works”, 1839, 1st edition.]

("PROMETHEUS UNBOUND”, ACT 4.)

As a violet’s gentle eye
Gazes on the azure sky
Until its hue grows like what it beholds;
As a gray and empty mist
Lies like solid amethyst 5
Over the western mountain it enfolds,
When the sunset sleeps
Upon its snow;
As a strain of sweetest sound
Wraps itself the wind around 10
Until the voiceless wind be music too;
As aught dark, vain, and dull,
Basking in what is beautiful,
Is full of light and love—­

***

CANCELLED STANZA OF THE MASK OF ANARCHY.

[Published by H. Buxton Forman, “The Mask of Anarchy” ("Facsimile of Shelley’s manuscript"), 1887.]

(FOR WHICH STANZAS 68, 69 HAVE BEEN SUBSTITUTED.)

From the cities where from caves,
Like the dead from putrid graves,
Troops of starvelings gliding come,
Living Tenants of a tomb.

***

NOTE ON POEMS OF 1819, BY MRS. SHELLEY.