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SONNET I. - Percy Bysshe Shelley, Posthumous Poems [1824]

Edition used:

Posthumous Poems (London: John and Henry L. Hunt, 1824).

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SONNET I.

  • Ye hasten to the dead! What seek ye there,
  • Ye restless thoughts and busy purposes
  • Of the idle brain, which the world’s livery wear?
  • Oh thou quick Heart which pantest to possess
  • All that anticipation feigneth fair!
  • Thou vainly curious mind which wouldest guess
  • Whence thou didst come, and whither thou may’st go,
  • And that which never yet was known would know—
  • Oh, whither hasten ye that thus ye press
  • With such swift feet life’s green and pleasant path,
  • Seeking alike from happiness and woe
  • A refuge in the cavern of grey death?
  • Oh heart, and mind, and thoughts! What thing do you
  • Hope to inherit in the grave below?