Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
The Question
1 I dreamed that, as I wandered by the way,
2 Bare Winter suddenly was changed to Spring,
3And gentle odours led my steps astray,
4 Mixed with a sound of waters murmuring
5Along a shelving bank of turf, which lay
6 Under a copse, and hardly dared to fling
7Its green arms round the bosom of the stream,
8But kissed it and then fled, as thou mightest in dream.
9 There grew pied wind-flowers and violets,
10 Daisies, those pearled Arcturi of the earth,
11The constellated flower that never sets;
12 Faint oxlips; tender bluebells, at whose birth
13The sod scarce heaved; and that tall flower that wets--
14 Like a child, half in tenderness and mirth--
15Its mother's face with Heaven's collected tears,
16When the low wind, its playmate's voice, it hears.
17 And in the warm hedge grew lush eglantine,
18 Green cowbind and the moonlight-coloured may,
19And cherry-blossoms, and white cups, whose wine
20 Was the bright dew, yet drained not by the day;
21And wild roses, and ivy serpentine,
22 With its dark buds and leaves, wandering astray;
23And flowers azure, black, and streaked with gold,
24Fairer than any wakened eyes behold.
25 And nearer to the river's trembling edge
26 There grew broad flag-flowers, purple pranked with white,
27And starry river buds among the sedge,
28 And floating water-lilies, broad and bright,
29Which lit the oak that overhung the hedge
30 With moonlight beams of their own watery light;
31And bulrushes, and reeds of such deep green
32As soothed the dazzled eye with sober sheen.
33 Methought that of these visionary flowers
34 I made a nosegay, bound in such a way
35That the same hues, which in their natural bowers
36 Were mingled or opposed, the like array
37Kept these imprisoned children of the Hours
38 Within my hand,--and then, elate and gay,
39I hastened to the spot whence I had come,
40That I might there present it!--Oh! to whom?
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, The Literary Pocket-Book: or, Companion for the Lover of Nature and Art (London: C. |&| J. Ollier, 1820). AY L584 MICR mfm.
First publication date:
1820
RPO poem editor: J. D. Robins
RP edition: 2RP 2.260.
Recent editing: 4:2002/5/20
Composition date:
1820
Rhyme: abababcc
Other poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley
