Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE TWO SPIRITS: AN ALLEGORY, by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE TWO SPIRITS: AN ALLEGORY, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: O thou, who plumed with strong desire
Last Line: He finds night day.


First spirit

O thou, who plumed with strong desire
Wouldst float above the earth, beware!
A Shadow tracks thy flight of fire --
Night is coming!
Bright are the regions of the air,
And among the winds and beams
It were delight to wander there --
Night is coming!

Second spirit

The deathless stars are bright above;
If I would cross the shade of night,
Within my heart is the lamp of love,
And that is day!
And the moon will smile with gentle light
On my golden plumes where'er they move;
The meteors will linger round my flight,
And make night day.

First spirit

But if the whirlwinds of darkness waken
Hail, and lightning, and stormy rain?
See, the bounds of the air are shaken --
Night is coming!
The red swift clouds of the hurricane
Yon declining sun have overtaken,
The clash of the hail sweeps over the plain --
Night is coming!

Second spirit

I see the light, and I hear the sound;
I'll sail on the flood of the tempest dark,
With the calm within and the light around
Which makes night day:
And thou, when the gloom is deep and stark,
Look from thy dull earth, slumber-bound,
My moon-like flight thou then mayst mark
On high, far away.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

Some there is a precipice
Where one vast pine is frozen to ruin
O'er piles of snow and chasms of ice
Mid Alpine mountains;
And that the languid storm pursuing
That winged shape, forever flies
Round those hoar branches, aye renewing
Its aery fountains.

Some say when nights are dry and clear,
And the death-dews sleep on the morass,
Sweet whispers are heard by the traveller,
Which make night day:
And a silver shape like his early love doth pass
Upborne by her wild and glittering hair,
And, when he awakes on the fragrant grass,
He finds night day.






Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net