The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (ed. Hutchinson, 1914)/From the Original Draft of the Poem to William Shelley

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

FROM THE ORIGINAL DRAFT OF THE POEM TO WILLIAM SHELLEY

[Published in Dr. Garnett's Relics of Shelley, 1862.]

I
The world is now our dwelling-place;
Where'er the earth one fading trace
Of what was great and free does keep,
That is our home! . . .
Mild thoughts of man's ungentle race 5
Shall our contented exile reap;
For who that in some happy place
His own free thoughts can freely chase
By woods and waves can clothe his face
In cynic smiles? Child! we shall weep. 10

II
This lament,
The memory of thy grievous wrong
Will fade . . .
But genius is omnipotent
To hallow . . . 15