The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (ed. Hutchinson, 1914)/Sonnet: Ye hasten to the grave
SONNET
[Published by Leigh Hunt, The Literary Pocket-Book, 1823. There is a transcript amongst the Ollier MSS., and another in the Harvard MS. book.]
Ye hasten to the grave![1] What seek ye there,
Ye restless thoughts and busy purposes
Of the idle brain, which the world's livery wear?
O thou quick heart, which pantest to possess
All that pale Expectation[2] feigneth fair! 5
Thou vainly curious mind which wouldest guess
Whence thou didst come, and whither thou must[3] go,
And all that[4] never yet was known would[4] know—
Oh, whither hasten ye, that thus ye press,
With such swift feet life's green and pleasant path, 10
Seeking, alike from happiness and woe,
A refuge in the cavern of gray death?
O heart, and mind, and thoughts! what thing do you
Hope to inherit in the grave below?
Ye restless thoughts and busy purposes
Of the idle brain, which the world's livery wear?
O thou quick heart, which pantest to possess
All that pale Expectation[2] feigneth fair! 5
Thou vainly curious mind which wouldest guess
Whence thou didst come, and whither thou must[3] go,
And all that[4] never yet was known would[4] know—
Oh, whither hasten ye, that thus ye press,
With such swift feet life's green and pleasant path, 10
Seeking, alike from happiness and woe,
A refuge in the cavern of gray death?
O heart, and mind, and thoughts! what thing do you
Hope to inherit in the grave below?
- ↑ Sonnet.—1 grave Ollier MS.; dead Harvard MS., 1823, edd. 1824, 1839.
- ↑ Sonnet.—5 pale Expectation Ollier MS.; anticipation Harvard MS., 1823, edd. 1824, 1839.
- ↑ 7 must Harvard MS., 1823; mayst 1824; mayest edd. 1839.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 8 all that Harvard MS., 1823; that which edd. 1824, 1839. would Harvard MS., 1823; wouldst edd. 1839.