The Complete Poetical Works of Shelley including materials never before printed in any edition of the poems Edited with textual notes by Thomas Hutchinson |
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TO THE MOONBEAM |
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 | The Complete Poetical Works of Shelley including materials never before printed in any edition of the poems |  |
TO THE MOONBEAM
I
Moonbeam, leave the shadowy vale,To bathe this burning brow.
Moonbeam, why art thou so pale,
As thou walkest o'er the dewy dale,
Where humble wild-flowers grow?
Is it to mimic me?
But that can never be;
For thine orb is bright,
And the clouds are light,
That at intervals shadow the star-studded night.
II
Now all is deathy still on earth;Nature's tired frame reposes;
And, ere the golden morning's birth
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Flies forth its balmy breath.
But mine is the midnight of Death,
And Nature's morn
To my bosom forlorn
Brings but a gloomier night, implants a deadlier thorn.
III
Wretch! Suppress the glare of madnessStruggling in thine haggard eye,
For the keenest throb of sadness,
Pale Despair's most sickening sigh,
Is but to mimic me;
And this must ever be,
When the twilight of care,
And the night of despair,
Seem in my breast but joys to the pangs that rankle there.
| The Complete Poetical Works of Shelley including materials never before printed in any edition of the poems | |