Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TO JANE: THE INVITATION, by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY Recitation Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Best and brightest, come away! Last Line: In the universal sun. Variant Title(s): The Invitation Subject(s): Country Life; Nature; Williams, Jane | ||||||||
BEST and brightest, come away! Fairer far than this fair Day, Which, like thee to those in sorrow, Comes to bid a sweet good-morrow To the rough Year just awake In its cradle on the brake. The brightest hour of unborn Spring, Through the winter wandering, Found, it seems, the halcyon Morn To hoar February born. Bending from heaven, in azure mirth, It kiss'd the forehead of the Earth; And smiled upon the silent sea; And bade the frozen streams be free; And waked to music all their fountains; And breathed upon the frozen mountains; And like a prophetess of May Strew'd flowers upon the barren way, Making the wintry world appear Like one on whom thou smilest, dear. Away, away, from men and towns, To the wild wood and the downs -- To the silent wilderness Where the soul need not repress Its music lest it should not find An echo in another's mind, While the touch of Nature's art Harmonizes heart to heart. I leave this notice on my door For each accustom'd visitor: -- 'I am gone into the fields To take what this sweet hour yields. Reflection, you may come to-morrow; Sit by the fireside with Sorrow. You with the unpaid bill, Despair, -- You, tiresome verse-reciter, Care, -- I will pay you in the grave, -- Death will listen to your stave. Expectation too, be off! To-day is for itself enough. Hope, in pity mock not Woe With smiles, nor follow where I go; Long having lived on your sweet food, At length I find one moment's good After long pain: with all your love, This you never told me of.' Radiant Sister of the Day, Awake! arise! and come away! To the wild woods and the plains; And the pools where winter rains Image all their roof of leaves; Where the pine its garland weaves Of sapless green and ivy dun Round stems that never kiss the sun; Where the lawns and pastures be, And the sandhills of the sea; Where the melting hoar-frost wets The daisy-star that never sets, And wind-flowers, and violets Which yet join not scent to hue, Crown the pale year weak and new; When the night is left behind In the deep east, dun and blind, And the blue noon is over us, And the multitudinous Billows murmur at our feet Where the earth and ocean meet, And all things seem only one In the universal sun. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO JANE: THE RECOLLECTION by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY WITH A GUITAR, TO JANE by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY THE MAGNETIC LADY TO HER PATIENT by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY BUONA NOTTE by FRANCIS THOMPSON A DIRGE by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY ADONAIS; AN ELEGY ON THE DEATH OF JOHN KEATS by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY ALASTOR; OR, THE SPIRIT OF SOLITUDE by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY AUTUMN: A DIRGE by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY ENGLAND IN 1819 by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY EPIPSYCHIDION by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY FEELINGS OF A REPUBLICAN ON THE FALL OF BONAPARTE by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY |
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