The Complete Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (ed. Hutchinson, 1914)/Sonnet to Byron
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SONNET TO BYRON
[Published by Medwin, The Shelley Papers, 1832 (ll. 1-7), and Life of Shelley, 1847 (ll. 1-9, 12-14). Revised and completed from the Boscombe MS. by Rossetti, Complete P. W. of P. B. S., 1870.]
[I am afraid these verses will not please you, but]
If I esteemed you[1] less, Envy would kill
Pleasure, and leave to Wonder and Despair
The ministration of the thoughts that fill
The mind which, like a worm whose life may share[2]
A portion of the unapproachable, 5
Marks your[3] creations rise as fast and fair
As perfect worlds at the Creator's will.
But such is my regard that nor your power
To soar above the heights where others [climb],[4]
Nor fame, that shadow of the unborn hour 10
Cast from the envious future on the time,[5]
Move one regret for his unhonoured name
Who dares these words:—the worm beneath the sod
May lift itself in homage of the God.[6]
If I esteemed you[1] less, Envy would kill
Pleasure, and leave to Wonder and Despair
The ministration of the thoughts that fill
The mind which, like a worm whose life may share[2]
A portion of the unapproachable, 5
Marks your[3] creations rise as fast and fair
As perfect worlds at the Creator's will.
But such is my regard that nor your power
To soar above the heights where others [climb],[4]
Nor fame, that shadow of the unborn hour 10
Cast from the envious future on the time,[5]
Move one regret for his unhonoured name
Who dares these words:—the worm beneath the sod
May lift itself in homage of the God.[6]
- ↑ Sonnet to Byron—1 you ed. 1870; him 1832; thee 1847.
- ↑ 4 So ed. 1870; My soul which as a worm may haply share 1832; My soul which even as a worm may share 1847.
- ↑ 6 your ed. 1870; his 1832; thy 1847.
- ↑ 8, 9 So ed. 1870; wanting 1832;But not the blessings of thy happier lot,
Nor thy well-won prosperity, and fame 1847. - ↑ 10, 11 So ed. 1870; wanting 1832, 1847.
- ↑ 12-14 So 1847, ed. 1870; wanting 1832.