O World! O Life! O Time!
On whose last steps I climb,
Trembling at that where I had stood before;
When will return the glory of your prime?
No more --Oh, never more!
Out of the day and night
A joy has taken flight:
Fresh spring, and summer, and winter hoar
Move my faint heart with grief, but with delight
No more --Oh, never more!
Notes
A glimpse at Shelley's original draft, give us an insight to how he had built this poem up.
His notes show how he was working on the meter and shape even before he had the words...
Ah time, oh night oh day
Ni na ni na, na ni
Ni na ni na, ni na
Oh life O death, O time
Time a di
Never time
Ah time, a time O-time
time !
Published by Mrs. Shelley, Posthumous Poems, 1824.
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Comments
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I enjoy that the notes were included, it gives a bit of a view to a poets inner workings.
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I agree that Percy Shelley is just as majestic as Emily Dickenson, but I think Sylvia Plath's tormented mind is more alluring to me.
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Sweet Like Pain
Shelley is as majestic as Emily Dickenson Just look at the rhyme Move my faint heart with grief, but with delight
No more -Oh, never more!
I love his extempore style
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delightful....more of a chime than a mere rhyme
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