The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (ed. Hutchinson, 1914)/Music

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

For works with similar titles, see Music.

MUSIC

[Published by Mrs. Shelley, Posthumous Poems, 1824.]

II pant for the music which is divine, My heart in its thirst is a dying flower; Pour forth the sound like enchanted wine, Loosen the notes in a silver shower; Like a herbless plain, for the gentle rain, 5I gasp, I faint, till they wake again.

IILet me drink of the spirit of that sweet sound, More, oh more,—I am thirsting yet; It loosens the serpent which care has bound Upon my heart to stifle it: 10The dissolving strain, through every vein,Passes into my heart and brain.

IIIAs the scent of a violet withered up, Which grew by the brink of a silver lake, When the hot noon has drained its dewy cup, 15 And mist^[1] there was none its thirst to slake—And the violet lay dead while the odour flew On the wings of the wind o'er the waters blue—

IVAs one who drinks from a charmèd cup Of foaming, and sparkling, and murmuring wine, 20Whom, a mighty Enchantress filling up, Invites to love with her kiss divine . . .

 

1. Music—16 mist 1824; tank 1839, 2nd ed.