The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (ed. Hutchinson, 1914)/From the Arabic: An Imitation

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

FROM THE ARABIC: AN IMITATION

[Published by Mrs. Shelley, Posthumous Poems, 1824. There is an intermediate draft amongst the Bodleian MSS. See Locock, Examination, &c., 1903, p. 13.]

I

My faint spirit was sitting in the light

⁠Of thy looks, my love;
⁠It panted for thee like the hind at noon
⁠For the brooks, my love.

Thy barb whose hoofs^[1] outspeed the tempest's flight ⁠5
⁠Bore thee far from me;
⁠My heart, for my weak feet were^[2] weary soon,
⁠Did companion thee.

II

Ah!^[3] fleeter far than fleetest storm or steed

⁠Or the death they bear, ⁠10
The heart which tender thought clothes like a dove
⁠With the wings of care;
In the battle, in the darkness, in the need,
⁠Shall mine cling to thee.
Nor claim one smile for all the comfort, love, ⁠15
⁠It may bring to thee.

 

1. From the Arabic—5 hoofs] feet B.
2. 7 were] grew B.
3. 9 Ah!] O B.