On the topmost watch-turret,
As a death-boding spirit
Stands the gray tyrant father,
To his voice the mad weather
Seems tame; 55

And with curses as wild
As e’er clung to child,
He devotes to the blast,
The best, loveliest and last
Of his name! 60

NOTES:  28 And though]Though editions 1839. 57 clung]cling editions 1839.

***

TO —.

[Published by Mrs. Shelley, “Posthumous Poems”, 1824.]

Music, when soft voices die,
Vibrates in the memory—­
Odours, when sweet violets sicken,
Live within the sense they quicken.

Rose leaves, when the rose is dead, 5
Are heaped for the beloved’s bed;
And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone,
Love itself shall slumber on.

***

SONG.

[Published by Mrs. Shelley, “Posthumous Poems”, 1824.  There is a transcript in the Harvard manuscript book.]

1. 
Rarely, rarely, comest thou,
Spirit of Delight! 
Wherefore hast thou left me now
Many a day and night? 
Many a weary night and day 5
’Tis since thou art fled away.

2. 
How shall ever one like me
Win thee back again? 
With the joyous and the free
Thou wilt scoff at pain. 10
Spirit false! thou hast forgot
All but those who need thee not.

3. 
As a lizard with the shade
Of a trembling leaf,
Thou with sorrow art dismayed; 15
Even the sighs of grief
Reproach thee, that thou art not near,
And reproach thou wilt not hear.

4. 
Let me set my mournful ditty
To a merry measure; 20
Thou wilt never come for pity,
Thou wilt come for pleasure;
Pity then will cut away
Those cruel wings, and thou wilt stay.

5. 
I love all that thou lovest, 25
Spirit of Delight! 
The fresh Earth in new leaves dressed,
And the starry night;
Autumn evening, and the morn
When the golden mists are born. 30

6. 
I love snow, and all the forms
Of the radiant frost;
I love waves, and winds, and storms,
Everything almost
Which is Nature’s, and may be 35
Untainted by man’s misery.

7. 
I love tranquil solitude,
And such society
As is quiet, wise, and good
Between thee and me 40
What difference? but thou dost possess
The things I seek, not love them less.