Clint, Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1819
Percy Bysshe Sheley was born on this date in 1792.
The Cloud
I bring fresh showers for the thirsting flowers,
From
the seas and the streams;
I bear light shade for the leaves when laid
In
their noonday dreams.
From my wings are shaken the dews that waken
The
sweet buds every one,
When rocked to rest on their mother's breast,
As she
dances about the sun.
I wield the flail of the lashing hail
And
whiten the green plains under,
And then again I dissolve it in rain,
And
laugh as I pass in thunder.
I sift the snow on the mountains below,
And
their great pines groan aghast;
And all the night 'tis my pillow white,
While
I sleep in the arms of the blast.
Sublime on the towers of my skiey bowers,
Lightning
my pilot sits;
In a cavern under is fettered the thunder,
It
struggles and howls at fits;
Over earth and ocean, with gentle motion,
This
pilot is guiding me,
Lured by the love of the genii that move
In the
depths of the purple sea;
Over the rills, and the crags, and the hills,
Over
the lakes and the plains,
Wherever he dream, under mountain or stream,
The
Spirit he loves remains;
And I all the while bask in Heaven's blue smile,
Whilst
he is dissolving in rains.
The sanguine Sunrise, with his meteor
eyes,
And
his burning plumes outspread,
Leaps on the back of my sailing rack,
When
the morning star shines dead;
As on the jag of a mountain crag,
Which
an earthquake rocks and swings,
An eagle alit one moment may sit
In the
light of its golden wings.
And when Sunset may breathe, from the lit sea beneath,
Its
ardours of rest and of love,
And the crimson pall of eve may fall
From
the depth of Heaven above,
With wings folded I rest, on mine aëry nest,
As
still as a brooding dove.
That orbèd maiden with white fire laden,
Whom
mortals call the Moon,
Glides glimmering o'er my fleece-like floor,
By the
midnight breezes strewn;
And wherever the beat of her unseen feet,
Which
only the angels hear,
May have broken the woof of my tent's thin roof,
The
stars peep behind her and peer;
And I laugh to see them whirl and flee,
Like a
swarm of golden bees,
When I widen the rent in my wind-built tent,
Till
calm the rivers, lakes, and seas,
Like strips of the sky fallen through me on high,
Are
each paved with the moon and these.
I bind the Sun's throne with a burning
zone,
And
the Moon's with a girdle of pearl;
The volcanoes are dim, and the stars reel and swim,
When
the whirlwinds my banner unfurl.
From cape to cape, with a bridge-like shape,
Over a
torrent sea,
Sunbeam-proof, I hang like a roof,
The
mountains its columns be.
The triumphal arch through which I march
With
hurricane, fire, and snow,
When the Powers of the air are chained to my chair,
Is the
million-coloured bow;
The sphere-fire above its soft colours wove,
While
the moist Earth was laughing below.
I am the daughter of Earth and Water,
And
the nursling of the Sky;
I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores;
I
change, but I cannot die.
For after the rain when with never a stain
The
pavilion of Heaven is bare,
And the winds and sunbeams with their convex gleams
Build
up the blue dome of air,
I silently laugh at my own cenotaph,
And
out of the caverns of rain,
Like a child from the womb, like a ghost from the tomb,
I
arise and unbuild it again.
Percy Bysshe Shelley
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