Percy Bysshe Shelley Poems

Nor happiness, nor majesty, nor fame,
Nor peace, nor strength, nor skill in arms or arts,
...

I.
Hopes, that swell in youthful breasts,
Live not through the waste of time!
Love’s rose a host of thorns invests;
...

At the creation of the Earth
Pleasure, that divinest birth,
From the soil of Heaven did rise,
...

Rome has fallen, ye see it lying
Heaped in undistinguished ruin:
Nature is alone undying.
...

I would not be a king--enough
Of woe it is to love;
The path to power is steep and rough,
And tempests reign above.
...

These are two friends whose lives were undivided;
So let their memory be, now they have glided
Under the grave; let not their bones be parted,
...

Thou living light that in thy rainbow hues
Clothest this naked world; and over Sea
And Earth and air, and all the shapes that be
...

Lift not the painted veil which those who live
Call Life: though unreal shapes be pictured there,
And it but mimic all we would believe
...

I.
The sun is warm, the sky is clear,
The waves are dancing fast and bright,
Blue isles and snowy mountains wear
...

(With what truth may I say--
Roma! Roma! Roma!
Non e piu come era prima!)
...