The Grave Of Shelley Poem by Oscar Wilde

The Grave Of Shelley

Rating: 3.0


LIKE burnt-out torches by a sick man's bed
Gaunt cypress-trees stand round the sun-bleached stone;
Here doth the little night-owl make her throne,
And the slight lizard show his jewelled head.
And, where the chaliced poppies flame to red,
In the still chamber of yon pyramid
Surely some Old-World Sphinx lurks darkly hid,
Grim warder of this pleasaunce of the dead.

Ah! sweet indeed to rest within the womb
Of Earth, great mother of eternal sleep,
But sweeter far for thee a restless tomb
In the blue cavern of an echoing deep,
Or where the tall ships founder in the gloom
Against the rocks of some wave-shattered steep.

COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Amar Agarwala 10 December 2017

Oscar Wilde was a poet - par excellence. His tribute here to Shelley is a measure only a masterly poet can bestow upon another.

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Fabrizio Frosini 22 April 2016

The grave of Shelley is in the same Cemetery where Keats is buried (Non-Chatolic Cemetery, in Rome)

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Sagnik Chakraborty 26 October 2009

Excellent! A befitting lyrical portrait of the final resting place of the ashes of the 'restless' volcano that was Shelley. A masterly tribute to an unparalleled master.

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Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde

Dublin / Ireland
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