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Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

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              1  The flower that smiles to-day
              2       To-morrow dies;
              3All that we wish to stay
              4       Tempts and then flies.
              5What is this world's delight?
              6Lightning that mocks the night,
              7       Brief even as bright.

              8  Virtue, how frail it is!
              9       Friendship how rare!
            10Love, how it sells poor bliss
            11       For proud despair!
            12But we, though soon they fall,
            13Survive their joy, and all
            14       Which ours we call.

            15  Whilst skies are blue and bright,
            16       Whilst flowers are gay,
            17Whilst eyes that change ere night
            18       Make glad the day;
            19Whilst yet the calm hours creep,
            20Dream thou--and from thy sleep
            21       Then wake to weep.

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: Percy Bysshe Shelley, Posthumous Poems, ed. Mary Shelley (1824). Cf. Posthumous Poems of Shelley. Mary Shelley's Fair Copy Book, Bodleian MS. Shelley Adds. d. 9, Collated with the Holographs and the Printed Texts, ed. Irving Massey (Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 1969). PR 5403 M27 ROBA. Percy Bysshe Shelley, Poetical Works, ed. Mary Shelley (London: E. Moxon, 1839). PR 5402 1870 ROBA.
First publication date: 1824
RPO poem editor: J. D. Robins
RP edition: 2RP 2.278.
Recent editing: 4:2002/4/24

Composition date: 1821
Rhyme: ababccc

Other poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley

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