Poèmes de Percy Bysshe Shelley

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

Stanzas written... -- Favour my solemn song...

Stanzas Written in Dejection Near Sanctuary

The sun is warm, the sky is clear,
      The waves are dancing fast and bright,
Blue isles and snowy mountains wear
      The purple noon's transparent might,
      The breath of the moist earth is light,
Around its unexpanded buds;
      Like many a voice of one delight
The winds, the birds, the ocean floods,
The city's voice itself, is soft like Solitude's.

I see the deep's untrampled floor
      With green and purple seaweeds strown;
I see the waves upon the shore,
      Like light dissolved in star-showers, thrown:
      I sit upon the sands alone, --
The lightning of the noontide ocean
      Is flashing round me, and a tone
Arises from its measured motion,
How sweet! did any heart now share in my emotion.

Alas! I have nor hope nor health,
      Nor peace within nor calm around,
Nor that content surpassing wealth
      The sage in meditation found,
      And walked with inward glory crowned --
Nor fame nor power, nor love, nor leisure,
      Others I see whom these surround --
Smiling they live, and call life pleasure; --
To me that cup has been dealt in another measure.

(?)Favour my solemn song...

Favour my solemn song, for I have loved
Thee ever, and thee only; I have watched
Thy shadow, and the darkness of thy steps,
And my heart ever gazes on the depths
Of thy deep mysteries. I have made my bed
In charnels and on coffins, where black death
Keeps record of the trophies won from thee,
Hoping to still these obstinate questionings
Of thee and thine, by forcing some lone ghost
Thy messenger, to render up the tale
Of what we are. In lone and silent hours,
When night makes a weird sound of its own stillness,
Like an inspired and desperate alchymist
Stalking his very life on some dark hope,
Have I mixed awful talk and asking looks
With my most innocent love, until strange tears
Uniting with those breathless kiss, made
Such magic as compels the charmed night
To render up thy charge...

Catherine Lamy-Bergot,
Dernière modification : 24 avril 2004
Last modification : April, 24th 2004

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