POEMS WRITTEN IN 1819
575
AN EXHORTATION
[Published with Prometheus Unbound, 1820. Dated 'Pisa, April, 1820' in Harvard MS. (Woodberry), but assigned by Mrs. Shelley to 1819.]
Chameleons feed on light and air:
Poets' food is love and fame:
If in this wide world of care
Poets could but find the same
With as little toil as they, 5
Would they ever change their hue
As the light chameleons do,
Suiting it to every ray
Twenty times a-day?
Poets' food is love and fame:
If in this wide world of care
Poets could but find the same
With as little toil as they, 5
Would they ever change their hue
As the light chameleons do,
Suiting it to every ray
Twenty times a-day?
Poets are on this cold earth, 10
As chameleons might be,
Hidden from their early birth
In a cave beneath the sea;
Where light is, chameleons change:
Where love is not, poets do: 15
Fame is love disguised: if few
Find either never think it strange
That poets range.
As chameleons might be,
Hidden from their early birth
In a cave beneath the sea;
Where light is, chameleons change:
Where love is not, poets do: 15
Fame is love disguised: if few
Find either never think it strange
That poets range.
Yet dare not stain with wealth or power 19
A poet's free and heavenly mind:
If bright chameleons should devour
Any food but beams and wind,
They would grow as earthly soon
As their brother lizards are.
Children of a sunnier star, 25
Spirits from beyond the moon,
Oh, refuse the boon!
A poet's free and heavenly mind:
If bright chameleons should devour
Any food but beams and wind,
They would grow as earthly soon
As their brother lizards are.
Children of a sunnier star, 25
Spirits from beyond the moon,
Oh, refuse the boon!
THE INDIAN SERENADE
[Published, with the title, Song written for an Indian Air, in The Liberal, ii, 1822. Reprinted (Lines to an Indian Air) by Mrs. Shelley, Posthumous Poems, 1824. The poem is included in the Harvard MS. book, and there is a description by Robert Browning of an autograph copy presenting some variations from the text of 1824. See Leigh Hunt's Correspondence, ii, pp. 264-8.]
I.
I arise from dreams of thee
In the first sweet sleep of night.
When[1] the winds are breathing low,
And the stars are shining[2] bright:
I arise from dreams of thee, 5
And a spirit in my feet
Hath led[3] me—who knows how?
To thy chamber window, Sweet!
I arise from dreams of thee
In the first sweet sleep of night.
When[1] the winds are breathing low,
And the stars are shining[2] bright:
I arise from dreams of thee, 5
And a spirit in my feet
Hath led[3] me—who knows how?
To thy chamber window, Sweet!
II.
The wandering airs they faint
On the dark, the silent stream— 10
The Champak[4] odours fail
Like sweet thoughts in a dream;
The nightingale's complaint,
It dies upon her heart;—
As I must on[5] thine, 15
Oh, belovèd[6] as thou art!
The wandering airs they faint
On the dark, the silent stream— 10
The Champak[4] odours fail
Like sweet thoughts in a dream;
The nightingale's complaint,
It dies upon her heart;—
As I must on[5] thine, 15
Oh, belovèd[6] as thou art!
III.
O lift me from the grass!
I die! I faint! I fail!
Let thy love in kisses rain
On my lips and eyelids pale. 20
My cheek is cold and white, alas!
My heart beats loud and fast;—
Oh! press it to thine own[7] again,
Where it will break at last.
O lift me from the grass!
I die! I faint! I fail!
Let thy love in kisses rain
On my lips and eyelids pale. 20
My cheek is cold and white, alas!
My heart beats loud and fast;—
Oh! press it to thine own[7] again,
Where it will break at last.
O pillow cold and wet with tears!
Thou breathest sleep no more!
Thou breathest sleep no more!
- ↑ Indian Serenade.—3 Harvard MS. omits When.
- ↑ 4 shining] burning Harvard MS., 1822.
- ↑ 7 Hath led Browning MS., 1822; Has borne Harvard MS. ; Has led 1824.
- ↑ 11 The Champak Harvard MS., 1822, 1824; And the Champak's Browning MS.
- ↑ 15 As I must on 1822, 1824; As I must die on Harvard MS., 1839. 1st ed.
- ↑ 16 Oh, belovèd Browning MS., Harvard MS., 1839, 1st ed.; Belovèd 1822, 1824.
- ↑ 23 press it to thine own Browning MS.; press it close to thine Harvard MS., 1824, 1839, 1st ed.; press me to thine own, 1822.
