Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TO CONSTANTIA, SINGING (2), by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Thy voice, slow rising like a spirit, lingers Last Line: Such things the heart can feel and learn, but not forget! | ||||||||
Thy voice, slow rising like a spirit, lingers O'ersgadowing me with soft and lulling wings; The blood and life within thy snowy fingers Teach witchcraft to the instrumental strings! My brain is wild, my breath comes quick, The blood is listening in my frame, And thronging shadows fast and thick Fall on my overflowing eyes, My heart is quivering like a flame As morning-dew that in the sunbeam dies I am dissolved in these consuming ecstasies. I have no life, Constantia, but in thee, Whilst, like the world-surrounding air, thy song Flows on, and fills all things with melody! Now is thy voice a tempest swift and strong On which, as one in trance upborne, Secure o'er woods and waves I sweep Rejoicing like a cloud of morn Now 'tis the breath of summer's night Which, where the starry waters sleep Round western isles with incense-blossoms bright, Lingering suspends my soul in voluptuous flight. A deep and breathless awe (like the swift change Of dreams unseen, but felt, in youthful slumbers), Wild, sweet, yet incommunicably strange, Thou breathless now, in fast-ascending numbers. The cope of Heaven seems rent and cloven By the enchantment of thy strain, And o'er my shoulders wings are woven To follow is sublime career Beyond the mighty moons that wane Upon the verge of Nature's utmost sphere, Till the world's shadowy walls are past, and disappear. Cease, cease, for such wild lessons madmen learn! Long thus to sink, thus to be lost and die, Perhaps is death indeedConstantia turn! Yes, in thine eyes a power like light doth lie Even though the soundsits voicethat were Between thy lips are laid to sleep, Within thy breath and on thy hair Like odour is lingering yet, And from thy touch like fire doth leap! Even while I write my burning cheeks are wet Such things the heart can feel and learn, but not forget! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...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 HYMN OF PAN by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY HYMN TO INTELLECTUAL BEAUTY by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY LINES WRITTEN ON HEARING THE NEWS OF THE DEATH OF NAPOLEON by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY LOVE'S PHILOSOPHY by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY MONT BLANC; LINES WRITTEN IN THE VALE OF CHAMOUNI by PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY |
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