No More Learning

By all the days, under an hireling's care,
Of dull constraint and bitter heaviness,--
O wretched ye if ever any were,-- _35
Sadder than orphans, yet not fatherless!

10.
By the false cant which on their innocent lips
Must hang like poison on an opening bloom,
By the dark creeds which cover with eclipse
Their pathway from the cradle to the tomb-- _40

11.
By thy most impious Hell, and all its terror;
By all the grief, the madness, and the guilt
Of thine impostures, which must be their error--
That sand on which thy crumbling power is built--

12.
By thy complicity with lust and hate-- _45
Thy thirst for tears--thy hunger after gold--
The ready frauds which ever on thee wait--
The servile arts in which thou hast grown old--

13.
By thy most killing sneer, and by thy smile--
By all the arts and snares of thy black den, _50
And--for thou canst outweep the crocodile--
By thy false tears--those millstones braining men--

14.
By all the hate which checks a father's love--
By all the scorn which kills a father's care--
By those most impious hands which dared remove _55
Nature's high bounds--by thee--and by despair--

15.
Yes, the despair which bids a father groan,
And cry, 'My children are no longer mine--
The blood within those veins may be mine own,
But--Tyrant--their polluted souls are thine;-- _60

16.
I curse thee--though I hate thee not. --O slave!
If thou couldst quench the earth-consuming Hell
Of which thou art a daemon, on thy grave
This curse should be a blessing. Fare thee well!

NOTES:
_9 Angel which aye cancelled by Shelley for Fate which ever Fa.
_24 promise of a 1839, 2nd edition; promises of 1839, 1st edition.
_27 lore]love Fa.
_32 and saddest]the saddest Fa.
_36 yet not fatherless! cancelled by Shelley for why not fatherless? Fa.
_41-_44 By. . . built 'crossed by Shelley and marked dele by Mrs. Shelley'
(Woodberry) Fa.
_50 arts and snares 1839, 1st edition;
snares and arts Harvard Coll. manuscript;
snares and nets Fa. ;
acts and snares 1839, 2nd edition.
_59 those]their Fa.

***


TO WILLIAM SHELLEY.

[Published by Mrs. Shelley (1, 5, 6), "Poetical Works", 1839, 1st
edition; in full, "Poetical Works", 1839, 2nd edition.