Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)
Time Long Past
1 Like the ghost of a dear friend dead
2 Is Time long past.
3A tone which is now forever fled,
4A hope which is now forever past,
5A love so sweet it could not last,
6 Was Time long past.
7 There were sweet dreams in the night
8 Of Time long past:
9And, was it sadness or delight,
10Each day a shadow onward cast
11Which made us wish it yet might last--
12 That Time long past.
13 There is regret, almost remorse,
14 For Time long past.
15'Tis like a child's belovèd corse
16A father watches, till at last
17Beauty is like remembrance, cast
18 From Time long past.
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, Poetical Works, ed. by William Michael Rossetti (London: E. Moxon, 1870). PR 5402 1870 ROBA.
First publication date:
1870
RPO poem editor: J. D. Robins
RP edition: 2RP 2.262.
Recent editing: 4:2002/5/20
Composition date:
1820
Rhyme: ababbb
Other poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley
