James and Mary Ford, eds. Every Day in the Year. 1902.
July 8The Grave of Shelley
By Oscar Wilde (18541900)L
Gaunt cypress trees stand round the sunbleached stone,
Here doth the little night owl make her throne,
And the slight lizard show his jeweled head.
In the still chamber of yon pyramid
Surely some Old World Sphinx lurks darkly hid,
Grim warder of this pleasaunce of the dead.
Of Earth, great mother of Eternal Sleep,
But sweeter far for thee a restless tomb
In the blue cavern of an echoing deep,
Or where the tall ships founder in the gloom
Against the rocks of some wave-shattered steep.