The Two Spirits: An Allegory

Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792 (Horsham) – 1822 (Lerici)



FIRST SPIRIT
     O thou, who plum'd 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 say 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, for ever flies
   Round those hoar branches, aye renewing
          Its aëry fountains.

   Some say when nights are dry and dear,
       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.

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on April 07, 2023

1:35 min read
171

Quick analysis:

Scheme abcbDcxcAefegfxfa hihDihiA jkjgkjkg xhxldxdl xmbgmcmg
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,941
Words 314
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 17, 8, 8, 8, 8

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is regarded by critics as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. more…

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