IX

By all the days under an hireling's care,
Of dull constraint and bitter heaviness, -
Oh, wretched if ever any were,

ye

Sadder than orphans, yet not fatherless!

X

By the false cant which on their innocent lips
Must hang like poison on an opening bloom,
By the dark creeds which cover with eclipse
Their pathway from the cradle to the tomb-

XI

By thy most impious Hell, and all its terror;
By all the grief, the madness, and the guilt
Of thine impostures, which must be their error
That sand on which thy crumbling Power is
built

XII

By thy complicity with lust and hate

Thy thirst for tears- thy hunger after goldThe ready frauds which ever on thee wait The servile arts in which thou hast

grown

old

ix. 1 an || a, Mrs. Shelley, transcript (Frederickson1), 18391,2. 3 any ever, Mrs. Shelley, transcript (Frederickson1). 4 yet not fatherless || cancelled by Shelley for why not fatherless, Mrs. Shelley, transcript (Frederickson1).

xi. crossed by Shelley and marked dele, Mrs. Shelley, transcript (Frederickson1).

xi. 1 most, omit, Mrs. Shelley, transcript (Frederickson2).

1 terrors, Mrs. Shelley, transcript (Frederickson2), 18392. 3 errors, Mrs. Shelley, transcript (Frederickson2), 18392. xii. 4 hast art, Mrs. Shelley, transcripts (Forman, one, Frederickson2).

XIII

By thy most killing sneer, and by thy smileBy all the arts and snares of thy black den, for thou canst outweep the crocodile

And

By all the hate which checks a father's love -
By all the scorn which kills a father's care
By those most impious hands which dared remove
Nature's high bounds - by thee

spair

XV

and by de

Yes, the despair which bids a father groan,
And cry, " My children are no longer mine —
The blood within those veins may be mine own,
But, Tyrant, their polluted souls are thine;"—

XVI

I curse thee, though I hate thee not. - O slave! If thou couldst quench the earth-consuming Hell Of which thou art a demon, on thy grave

This curse should be a blessing. Fare thee well!

xiii. 2 arts and snares, Mrs. Shelley, transcripts (Forman, Frederickson2) || snares and arts, Harvard MS.; snares and nets, Mrs. Shelley, transcripts (Forman, Frederickson1); acts and snares, Mrs. Shelley, 18392.

xiv. 2 scorn || hate, Mrs. Shelley, transcript (Frederickson2). xv. 2 cry say, transcript, (Forman, one).

3 those their, transcripts, (Forman, one, Frederickson1). 4 souls are soul is, Harvard MS., Mrs. Shelley, transcript (Forman).

TO WILLIAM SHELLEY

I

THE billows on the beach are leaping around it, The bark is weak and frail,

The sea looks black, and the clouds that bound

it

Darkly strew the gale.

Come with me, thou delightful child,

And the winds are loose, we must not stay,
Or the slaves of the law may rend thee away.

II

They have taken thy brother and sister dear,
They have made them unfit for thee;

They have withered the smile and dried the

tear

Which should have been sacred to me.

To a blighting faith and a cause of crime
They have bound them slaves in youthly prime,
And they will curse my name and thee
Because we are fearless and free.

To William Shelley. Published without title by Mrs. Shelley, i, v., vi., 18391, i.-vi., 18392.

i. 1 on the beach, Mrs. Shelley, transcript, 18392 || omit 18391. 5 thou, Mrs. Shelley, 18391,2 || omit, Mrs. Shelley, transcript. 8 the, Mrs. Shelley, transcript, 18391 || omit, Mrs. Shelley, 18392.

ii. 6 prime, Mrs. Shelley, transcript || time, Mrs. Shelley, 18392. 8 are fearless, Mrs. Shelley, transcript || fearless are, Mrs. Shelley, 18392.

III

Come thou, beloved as thou art;
Another sleepeth still

Near thy sweet mother's anxious heart,
Which thou with joy shalt fill,

With fairest smiles of wonder thrown
On that which is indeed our own,
And which in distant lands will be
The dearest playmate unto thee.

IV

Fear not the tyrants will rule forever,
Or the priests of the evil faith;
They stand on the brink of that raging river

Whose waves they have tainted with death.
It is fed from the depth of a thousand dells,
Around them it foams and rages and swells;
And their swords and their sceptres I floating

see,

Like wrecks on the surge of eternity.

V

Rest, rest, and shriek not, thou gentle child!
The rocking of the boat thou fearest,
And the cold spray and the clamor wild?
There sit between us two, thou dearest
Me and thy mother well we know

The storm at which thou tremblest so,

iii. 4 shalt, Mrs. Shelley, transcript | wilt, Mrs. Shelley, 18392. iv. Compare Rosalind and Helen, 894–901; omit, Mrs. Shelley, transcript.

v. 1 and, Mrs. Shelley, transcript || omit, Mrs. Shelley, 18391,2.

With all its dark and hungry graves,
Less cruel than the savage slaves
Who hunt us o'er these sheltering waves.

VI

This hour will in thy memory

Be a dream of days forgotten long;
We soon shall dwell by the azure sea
Of serene and golden Italy,

Or Greece, the Mother of the free;
And I will teach thine infant tongue
To call upon those heroes old

In their own language, and will mould
Thy growing spirit in the flame

Of Grecian lore, that by such name
A patriot's birthright thou mayst claim!

ON FANNY GODWIN

HER voice did quiver as we parted,
Yet knew I not that heart was broken
From which it came, and I departed
Heeding not the words then spoken.
Misery O Misery,

This world is all too wide for thee.

v. 9 us, Mrs. Shelley, transcript, 18391 || thee, Mrs. Shelley, 18392.

vi. 1 will, Mrs. Shelley, transcript, 18392 || sometime in, Mrs. Shelley, 18391.

vi. 2 long, Mrs. Shelley, transcript || omit, Mrs. Shelley, 18391,2. 7 those, Mrs. Shelley, transcript, 18391 || their, Mrs. Shelley, 18392.

On Fanny Godwin. Published with title, On F. G., by Mrs. Shelley, 18391.