As I must die on thine,

Oh, beloved as thou art!

III

Oh, lift me from the grass!
I die! I faint! I fail!
Let thy love in kisses rain
On my lips and eyelids pale.
My cheek is cold and white, alas!
My heart beats loud and fast,
Oh! press it close to thine again,
Where it will break at last.

TO SOPHIA

I

THOU art fair, and few are fairer

Of the nymphs of earth or ocean;
They are robes that fit the wearer

Those soft limbs of thine, whose motion
Ever falls and shifts and glances
As the life within them dances.

ii. 7 die, Harvard MS., Mrs. Shelley, 18391 || omit, The Liberal, 1822, Mrs. Shelley, 1824.

ii. 8 Oh, Browning MS., Harvard MS., Mrs. Shelley, 18391 || omit, The Liberal, 1822, Mrs. Shelley, 1824.

iii. 7 press it close to thine, Harvard MS., Mrs. Shelley, 1824, 18391 || press it to thine own, Browning MS., press me to thine own, The Liberal, 1822.

iii. 8 will || must, Copy of Browning MS.

To Sophia || Sophia, Stacey MS. Lines written for Miss Sophia Stacey, Rossetti, 1870. Published by Rossetti, 1870.

II

Thy deep eyes, a double Planet,
Gaze the wisest into madness
With soft clear fire; the winds that fan it
Are those thoughts of tender gladness
Which, like zephyrs on the billow,
Make thy gentle soul their pillow.

III

If, whatever face thou paintest

In those eyes, grows pale with pleasure, If the fainting soul is faintest

When it hears thy harp's wild measure, Wonder not that when thou speakest Of the weak my heart is weakest.

IV

As dew beneath the wind of morning,
As the sea which whirlwinds waken,
As the birds at thunder's warning,

As aught mute yet deeply shaken,
As one who feels an unseen spirit,
Is
my
heart when thine is near it.

ii. 4 tender, Stacey MS. || gentle, Stacey MS. cancelled. 5 zephyrs, Stacey MS. || lightnings, Stacey MS. cancelled. 6 gentle, Stacey MS. || softest, Stacey MS. cancelled. iii. 2 those, Stacey MS. || thine, Stacey MS. cancelled. 3 soul, Stacey MS. || heart, Stacey MS. cancelled.

LOVE'S PHILOSOPHY

I

THE fountains mingle with the river,
And the rivers with the ocean;
The winds of heaven mix forever

With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine
In one another's being mingle:
Why not I with thine?

II

See the mountains kiss high heaven,

And the waves clasp one another;
No sister flower would be forgiven
If it disdained its brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth,

And the moonbeams kiss the sea:
What are all these kissings worth,
If thou kiss not me?

Love's Philosophy, Hunt, 1819 || An Anacreontic, Harvard MS. Published by Hunt, The Indicator, December 22, 1819. Dated in the Harvard MS., January, 1820.

i. 3 mix forever, Stacey MS., Indicator, 1819 || melt together, Harvard MS.

i. 7 In one another's being, Harvard MS., Indicator, 1819 || In one spirit meet and, Stacey MS.

ii. 3 sister, Harvard MS., Stacey MS., Mrs. Shelley, 1824 || leaf or, Indicator, 1819.

ii. 4 disdained its, Harvard MS., Stacey MS., Mrs. Shelley, 1824 || disdained to kiss its, Indicator, 1819.

ii. 7 are all these kissings, Indicator, 1819 || all cancelled for were these examples, Harvard MS.; is all this sweet work, Stacey MS.

POEMS WRITTEN IN 1820

THE SENSITIVE PLANT

PART FIRST

A SENSITIVE Plant in a garden grew,
And the young winds fed it with silver dew,
And it opened its fan-like leaves to the light,
And closed them beneath the kisses of Night.

And the Spring arose on the garden fair,
Like the Spirit of Love felt everywhere;
And each flower and herb on Earth's dark breast
Rose from the dreams of its wintry rest.

But none ever trembled and panted with bliss
In the garden, the field, or the wilderness,
Like a doe in the noontide with love's sweet want,
As the companionless Sensitive Plant.

The snowdrop, and then the violet,
Arose from the ground with warm rain wet,
And their breath was mixed with fresh odor, sent
From the turf, like the voice and the instrument.

The Sensitive Plant. Published with Prometheus Unbound, 1820. Composed at Pisa, and dated, in the Harvard MS., March, 1820. 6 Like, felt, Harvard MS., Shelley, 1820 || And, Mrs. Shelley, 18391, fell, Mrs. Shelley, 18392.

Then the pied wind-flowers and the tulip tall,
And narcissi, the fairest among them all,
Who gaze on their eyes in the stream's recess
Till they die of their own dear loveliness;

And the Naiad-like lily of the vale,

Whom youth makes so fair, and passion so pale,

That the light of its tremulous bells is seen
Through their pavilions of tender green;

And the hyacinth purple, and white, and blue,
Which flung from its bells a sweet peal anew
Of music so delicate, soft, and intense,
It was felt like an odor within the sense;

And the rose like a nymph to the bath addressed,

Which unveiled the depth of her glowing breast,
Till, fold after fold, to the fainting air
The soul of her beauty and love lay bare;

And the wand-like lily, which lifted up,
As a Mænad, its moonlight-colored cup,
Till the fiery star, which is its eye,
Gazed through clear dew on the tender sky;

And the jessamine faint, and the sweet tube

rose,

The sweetest flower for scent that blows;
And all rare blossoms from every clime
Grew in that garden in perfect prime.
29-32 omit, Harvard MS.