Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867.
IV. Sonnet: “Ye hasten to the dead!”Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822)
Y
Ye restless thoughts and busy purposes
Of the idle brain, which the world’s livery wear?
O thou quick Heart, which pantest to possess
All that anticipation feigneth fair!
Thou vainly curious mind which wouldest guess
Whence thou didst come, and whither thou may’st go,
And that which never yet was known wouldst know—
O, whither hasten ye, that thus ye press
With such swift feet life’s green and pleasant path,
Seeking alike from happiness and woe
A refuge in the cavern of gray death?
O heart, and mind, and thoughts! What thing do you
Hope to inherit in the grave below?