To Night

To Night

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.
1  Swiftly walk o'er the western wave,
2        Spirit of Night!
3Out of the misty eastern cave,
4Where, all the long and lone daylight,
5Thou wovest dreams of joy and fear,
6Which make thee terrible and dear,--
7        Swift be thy flight!
8  Wrap thy form in a mantle gray,
9        Star-inwrought!
10Blind with thine hair the eyes of Day;
11Kiss her until she be wearied out,
12Then wander o'er city, and sea, and land,
13Touching all with thine opiate wand--
14        Come, long-sought!
15  When I arose and saw the dawn,
16        I sighed for thee;
17When light rode high, and the dew was gone,
18And noon lay heavy on flower and tree,
19And the weary Day turned to his rest,
20Lingering like an unloved guest.
21        I sighed for thee.
22  Thy brother Death came, and cried,
23        Wouldst thou me?
24Thy sweet child Sleep, the filmy-eyed,
25Murmured like a noontide bee,
26Shall I nestle near thy side?
27Wouldst thou me?--And I replied,
28        No, not thee!
29  Death will come when thou art dead,
30        Soon, too soon--
31Sleep will come when thou art fled;
32Of neither would I ask the boon
33I ask of thee, belovèd Night--
34Swift be thine approaching flight,
35        Come soon, soon!
Publication Start Year
1824
RPO poem Editors
J. D. Robins
RPO Edition
2RP 2.276.
Rhyme