No More Learning

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

The rude wind is singing
The dirge of the music dead;
The cold worms are clinging
Where kisses were lately fed.

***


FRAGMENT: 'GREAT SPIRIT'.

[Published by Rossetti, "Complete Poetical Works of P. B. S. ", 1870. ]

Great Spirit whom the sea of boundless thought
Nurtures within its unimagined caves,
In which thou sittest sole, as in my mind,
Giving a voice to its mysterious waves--

***


FRAGMENT: 'O THOU IMMORTAL DEITY'.

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

O thou immortal deity
Whose throne is in the depth of human thought,
I do adjure thy power and thee
By all that man may be, by all that he is not,
By all that he has been and yet must be! _5

***


FRAGMENT: THE FALSE LAUREL AND THE TRUE.

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

'What art thou, Presumptuous, who profanest
The wreath to mighty poets only due,
Even whilst like a forgotten moon thou wanest?
Touch not those leaves which for the eternal few
Who wander o'er the Paradise of fame, _5
In sacred dedication ever grew:
One of the crowd thou art without a name. '
'Ah, friend, 'tis the false laurel that I wear;
Bright though it seem, it is not the same
As that which bound Milton's immortal hair; _10
Its dew is poison; and the hopes that quicken
Under its chilling shade, though seeming fair,
Are flowers which die almost before they sicken. '

***


FRAGMENT: MAY THE LIMNER.

[This and the three following Fragments were edited from manuscript
Shelley D1 at the Bodleian Library and published by Mr. C. D. Locock,
"Examination", etc. , Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1903. They are printed
here as belonging probably to the year 1821. ]

When May is painting with her colours gay
The landscape sketched by April her sweet twin. . .

***


FRAGMENT: BEAUTY'S HALO.

[Published by Mr. C.