Fragments:

***
FRAGMENT: TO BYRON.



[Published by Dr. Garnett, "Relics of Shelley", 1862.]
O mighty mind, in whose deep stream this age
Shakes like a reed in the unheeding storm,
Why dost thou curb not thine own sacred rage?
***

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,                              _5
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.
***


FRAGMENT: THE LAKE'S MARGIN.
[Published by W.M. Rossetti, 1870.]
The fierce beasts of the woods and wildernesses
Track not the steps of him who drinks of it;
For the light breezes, which for ever fleet
Around its margin, heap the sand thereon.
***

FRAGMENT: 'MY HEAD IS WILD WITH WEEPING'.
[Published by W.M. Rossetti, 1870.]
My head is wild with weeping for a grief
Which is the shadow of a gentle mind.
I walk into the air (but no relief
To seek,--or haply, if I sought, to find;
It came unsought);--to wonder that a chief                           _5
Among men's spirits should be cold and blind.
NOTE:
_4 find cj. A.C. Bradley.
***

FRAGMENT: THE VINE-SHROUD.
[Published by W.M. Rossetti, 1870.]
Flourishing vine, whose kindling clusters glow
Beneath the autumnal sun, none taste of thee;
For thou dost shroud a ruin, and below
The rotting bones of dead antiquity.