Page:The complete poetical works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, including materials never before printed in any edition of the poems.djvu/668

Can break a spirit already more than bent.
The miserable one
Turns the mind's poison into food,— 15
Its medicine is tears,—its evil good.

III
Therefore, if now I see you seldomer.
Dear friends, dear friend!^[1] know that I only fly
Your looks, because they stir
Griefs that should sleep, and hopes that cannot die: 20
The very comfort that they minister
I scarce can bear, yet I,
So deeply is the arrow gone,
Should quickly perish if it were withdrawn.

IV
When I return to my cold home, you ask 25
Why I am not as I have ever^[2] been.
You spoil me for the task
Of acting a forced part in^[3] life's dull scene,—
Of wearing on my brow the idle mask
Of author, great or mean, 30
In the world's carnival. I sought
Peace thus, and but in you I found it not.

V
Full half an hour, to-day, I tried my lot
With various flowers, and every one still said,
'She loves me—loves me not.' 35
And if this meant a vision long since fled—
If it meant fortune, fame, or peace of thought—
If it meant,—but I dread
To speak what you may know too well:
Still there was truth in the sad oracle. 40

VI
The crane o'er seas and forests seeks her home;
No bird so wild but has its quiet nest,
When^[4] it no more would roam;
The sleepless billows on the ocean's breast
Break like a bursting heart, and die in foam, 45
And thus at length find rest:
Doubtless there is a place of peace
Where my weak heart and all its throbs will^[5] cease.

VII
I asked her, yesterday, if she believed
That I had resolution. One who had 50
Would ne'er have thus relieved

1. 18 Dear friends, dear friend Trelawny MS., 1839, 2nd ed.; Dear gentle friend 1834, 1839, 1st ed.
2. 26 ever] lately Trelawny MS.
3. 28 in Trelawny MS.; on 1834, edd. 1839.
4. 43 When 1839, 2nd ed.; Whence 1834, 1839, 1st ed.
5. 48 will 1839, 2nd ed.; shall 1834, 1839, 1st ed.