Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
Lines: The cold earth slept below
1 The cold earth slept below;
2 Above the cold sky shone;
3 And all around,
4 With a chilling sound,
5From caves of ice and fields of snow
6The breath of night like death did flow
7 Beneath the sinking moon.
8The wintry hedge was black;
9 The green grass was not seen;
10 The birds did rest
11 On the bare thorn's breast,
12Whose roots, beside the pathway track,
13Had bound their folds o'er many a crack
14 Which the frost had made between.
15Thine eyes glow'd in the glare
16 Of the moon's dying light;
18 On a sluggish stream
19Gleams dimly--so the moon shone there,
20And it yellow'd the strings of thy tangled hair,
21 That shook in the wind of night.
22The moon made thy lips pale, belov{`e}d;
23 The wind made thy bosom chill;
24 The night did shed
25 On thy dear head
26Its frozen dew, and thou didst lie
27Where the bitter breath of the naked sky
28 Might visit thee at will.
Notes
1] The single surviving MS. is dated November 5, 1815. If correct, this date makes impossible the common assumption that the poem refers to the suicide of Shelley's first wife, Harriet, in November 1816.
17] Tangled. Hunt prints "raven," but the MS. reads "tangled."
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: Leigh Hunt, ed., The Literary Pocket-Book: or, Companion for the Lover of Nature and Art (London: C. |&| J. Ollier, 1818-22). 5 vols. AY L584 MICR mfm.
First publication date:
1823
RPO poem editor: M. T. Wilson
RP edition: 3RP 2.555.
Recent editing: 4:2002/4/24
Composition date:
5
November
1815
Rhyme: abccaab
Other poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley
