5. 
Mont Blanc yet gleams on high—­the power is there,
The still and solemn power of many sights,
And many sounds, and much of life and death. 
In the calm darkness of the moonless nights, 130
In the lone glare of day, the snows descend
Upon that Mountain; none beholds them there,
Nor when the flakes burn in the sinking sun,
Or the star-beams dart through them:—­Winds contend
Silently there, and heap the snow with breath 135
Rapid and strong, but silently!  Its home
The voiceless lightning in these solitudes
Keeps innocently, and like vapour broods
Over the snow.  The secret strength of things
Which governs thought, and to the infinite dome 140
Of heaven is as a law, inhabits thee! 
And what were thou, and earth, and stars, and sea,
If to the human mind’s imaginings
Silence and solitude were vacancy?

July 23, 1816.

NOTES:  15 cloud-shadows]cloud shadows 1817;
    cloud, shadows 1824; clouds, shadows 1839.
20 Thy 1824; The 1839. 53 unfurled]upfurled cj.  James Thomson (’B.V.’). 56 Spread 1824; Speed 1839. 69 tracks her there 1824; watches her Boscombe manuscript. 79 But for such 1824; In such a Boscombe manuscript. 108 boundaries of the sky]boundary of the skies cj.  Rossetti
     (cf. lines 102, 106).
121 torrents’]torrent’s 1817, 1824, 1839.

***

CANCELLED PASSAGE OF MONT BLANC.

[Published by Garnett, “Relics of Shelley”, 1862.]

There is a voice, not understood by all,
Sent from these desert-caves.  It is the roar
Of the rent ice-cliff which the sunbeams call,
Plunging into the vale—­it is the blast
Descending on the pines—­the torrents pour... 5

***

FRAGMENT:  HOME.

[Published by Garnett, “Relics of Shelley”, 1862.]

Dear home, thou scene of earliest hopes and joys,
The least of which wronged Memory ever makes
Bitterer than all thine unremembered tears.

***

FRAGMENT OF A GHOST STORY.

[Published by Garnett, “Relics of Shelley”, 1862.]

A shovel of his ashes took
From the hearth’s obscurest nook,
Muttering mysteries as she went. 
Helen and Henry knew that Granny
Was as much afraid of Ghosts as any, 5
And so they followed hard—­
But Helen clung to her brother’s arm,
And her own spasm made her shake.

***

NOTE ON POEMS OF 1816, BY MRS. SHELLEY.