Percy Bysshe Shelley: Fragment: Apostrophe to Silence

Updated May 6, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

Fragment: Apostrophe to Silence

Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862. A transcript by Mrs. Shelley, given to Charles Cowden Clarke, presents one or two variants.

Silence! Oh, well are Death and Sleep and Thou
Three brethren named, the guardians gloomy-winged
Of one abyss, where life, and truth, and joy
Are swallowed up—yet spare me, Spirit, pity me,
Until the sounds I hear become my soul,
And it has left these faint and weary limbs,
To track along the lapses of the air
This wandering melody until it rests
Among lone mountains in some...
NOTES:
_4 Spirit 1862; O Spirit C.C.C. manuscript.
_8 This wandering melody 1862;
These wandering melodies... C.C.C. manuscript.
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