The Complete Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley — Complete eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,285 pages of information about The Complete Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley — Complete.

The Complete Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley — Complete eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 1,285 pages of information about The Complete Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley — Complete.

5. 
A lovely lady garmented in light
From her own beauty—­deep her eyes, as are
Two openings of unfathomable night
Seen through a Temple’s cloven roof—­her hair
Dark—­the dim brain whirls dizzy with delight. 85
Picturing her form; her soft smiles shone afar,
And her low voice was heard like love, and drew
All living things towards this wonder new.

6. 
And first the spotted cameleopard came,
And then the wise and fearless elephant; 90
Then the sly serpent, in the golden flame
Of his own volumes intervolved;—­all gaunt
And sanguine beasts her gentle looks made tame. 
They drank before her at her sacred fount;
And every beast of beating heart grew bold,
95
Such gentleness and power even to behold.

7. 
The brinded lioness led forth her young,
That she might teach them how they should forego
Their inborn thirst of death; the pard unstrung
His sinews at her feet, and sought to know 100
With looks whose motions spoke without a tongue
How he might be as gentle as the doe. 
The magic circle of her voice and eyes
All savage natures did imparadise.

8. 
And old Silenus, shaking a green stick 105
Of lilies, and the wood-gods in a crew
Came, blithe, as in the olive copses thick
Cicadae are, drunk with the noonday dew: 
And Dryope and Faunus followed quick,
Teasing the God to sing them something new;
110
Till in this cave they found the lady lone,
Sitting upon a seat of emerald stone.

9. 
And universal Pan, ’tis said, was there,
And though none saw him,—­through the adamant
Of the deep mountains, through the trackless air, 115
And through those living spirits, like a want,
He passed out of his everlasting lair
Where the quick heart of the great world doth pant,
And felt that wondrous lady all alone,—­
And she felt him, upon her emerald throne.
120

10. 
And every nymph of stream and spreading tree,
And every shepherdess of Ocean’s flocks,
Who drives her white waves over the green sea,
And Ocean with the brine on his gray locks,
And quaint Priapus with his company, 125
All came, much wondering how the enwombed rocks
Could have brought forth so beautiful a birth;—­
Her love subdued their wonder and their mirth.

11. 
The herdsmen and the mountain maidens came,
And the rude kings of pastoral Garamant—­ 130
Their spirits shook within them, as a flame
Stirred by the air under a cavern gaunt: 
Pigmies, and Polyphemes, by many a name,
Centaurs, and Satyrs, and such shapes as haunt
Wet clefts,—­and lumps neither alive nor dead,
135
Dog-headed, bosom-eyed, and bird-footed.

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
The Complete Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley — Complete from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.