Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
Percy Bysshe Shelley. 17921822614. Lines
WHEN the lamp is shatter’d, | |
The light in the dust lies dead; | |
When the cloud is scatter’d, | |
The rainbow’s glory is shed; | |
When the lute is broken, | 5 |
Sweet tones are remember’d not | |
When the lips have spoken, | |
Loved accents are soon forgot. | |
As music and splendour | |
Survive not the lamp and the lute, | 10 |
The heart’s echoes render | |
No song when the spirit is mute— | |
No song but sad dirges, | |
Like the wind through a ruin’d cell, | |
Or the mournful surges | 15 |
That ring the dead seaman’s knell. | |
When hearts have once mingled, | |
Love first leaves the well-built nest; | |
The weak one is singled | |
To endure what it once possest. | 20 |
O Love, who bewailest | |
The frailty of all things here, | |
Why choose you the frailest | |
For your cradle, your home, and your bier? | |
Its passions will rock thee, | 25 |
As the storms rock the ravens on high: | |
Bright reason will mock thee, | |
Like the sun from a wintry sky. | |
From thy nest every rafter | |
Will rot, and thine eagle home | 30 |
Leave thee naked to laughter, | |
When leaves fall and cold winds come. |